The Darkest Hour
by Shads42
Summary: Quinn is, at first glance, little more than your average 14 year old Inkling heading off to Inkopolis to make it big. Her goal is simple, to become one of the top 100 ink battlers. Getting caught between a rival that has no problem beating her up, secretive friends, and an octarian invasion wasn't part of her plan though. Rising to the top isn't going to be as easy as she thought.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

 **Yeah, so this got taken down off of fanfiction for a while (it's a long story). However, I was planning on rewriting it anyway so here's the new version. As of publishing this, any old versions still floating around the Net are considered non-canon to this fic's universe. So just a few housekeeping things to take care of before I start**

 **1) Disclaimer for the entire fic, since I don't feel like typing it out 40+ times: I own nothing official**

 **2) Credit goes to 466 Gaming for the awesome cover, which is used with their permission**

 **3) Yes, there are some slight similarities between this story and Pure White. Solace knows about them and I have their permission to write this fanfic. Please do not accuse me of stealing things from them. (And go check out their fic while you're at it if you need something else to read)**

 **4) This story is the second of four fanfics to take place in this universe I've created. You don't have to read the first story in this series to understand this one, as they are all stand-alone fics in their own right, but it definitely will greater expand the world I'm building in these stories.**

 **Link to the first story:**

 **https(:/) .net(/)s(/)12899025(/)3(/)Before-the-Darkness**

 **Just remove the parenthesis and then copy and paste the link in and it should work**

 **And that's pretty much it. Happy reading, people. Reviews, follows, and favorites are always appreciated.**

* * *

The smoldering sun beat down upon the earth with hazy rays of light, smothering the town with an intense heat. A soft golden glow seemed to soften the edges of all the buildings painted a drab white. Down by the shore sparkling water dyed a clear crystal blue lapped along the beach, combining with the light breeze to create a natural melody.

This was the sight of a small city called Splashtown, arguably a country bumpkin's home when compared to the great city of Inkopolis that lay far to the south. Perched right at the northernmost tip of the continent, nestled between mountains, it certainly was a picturesque place. The buildings were short, the tallest among them no more than three stories tall, and a relaxing atmosphere encompassed the entire area.

Few people ever came to the city. As far north as it was after the buildings there was nothing, just a vast endless sea that no one dared to try to cross. Its location more than anything else doomed it to never have a grand and lively population more befitting of a sprawling metropolis. Instead, farmers and towns' folks looking for an escape from all the hustle and bustle settled there. Things were normally quiet and peaceful, making it very much akin to a typical country town.

One thing that should be noted, however, was the almost complete lack of teenagers. Yes, there were a few here or there that had stayed home instead of undertaking what was commonly considered a major right of passage for inklings. But largely all teenagers were gone, off running wild in Inkopolis as they tore up turf and tried to become fresh. Such concepts were almost foreign in Splashtown, but even this far away they couldn't help but capture the imagination of the youth.

One such youth happened to be lying asleep in her bed, frolicking in a land of dreams. Her abode was painted all white, a masterpiece of winter speckled here and there with a few tiny specks of black. It was a simply furnished place, with a desk pushed up against the wall opposite two windows, a chair skewed just out of alignment positioned next to it. There was a small bookcase tucked in an alcove, a pair of dressers, and of course the bed the owner of the room was asleep in.

She was a curious sight to be seen, only recently having celebrated the all-important fourteenth birthday. Dusky bronze skin poked out from beneath the covers and long floppy tentacles marred only by the black mask surrounding her eyes. The teen was still, save for the faintest shifting of expressions on her face and the soft airy sounds that escaped as she breathed. All in all, if it weren't for one small detail she would have been rather average.

A thin, watery beam of sunlight dared to enter this peaceful abode, dancing along the wall until it came to land on her face. The inkling winced and uttered a short, sleepy grunt of complaint before flopping over onto a side. Snuggling deep down underneath the covers, a sleepy sigh escaped her form as she sleepily prepared to slip back into slumber.

The beam of sunlight was not to be deterred, however, and much to the girl's misfortune she had landed facing the window. More rays streamed into the room as the sun continued to march towards its zenith, bathing the world with a golden hue. They also happened to shine directly into the girl's eyes, causing her to twitch in annoyance before groggily blinking them open. With a yawn, she slowly sat up, hazily blinking the last trails of drowsiness away before lazily stretching.

Suddenly there was a thunderous pounding at her door, a sharp drumbeat echoing throughout the room.

"Move it, Quinn! You're going to miss the train!"

Quinn groaned out some semblance of a morning greeting before reluctantly climbing out of bed. Her legs wobbled a tiny amount as the inkling slowly stumbled around the room.

"Man," she mumbled to herself as she got dressed, "I've been fourteen for a little less than forty-eight hours and mom already wants me out of the house."

She sighed in frustration before starting to tug on her white shoes.

"I don't really see what her problem is...it's not like I'm going to miss the…" She trailed off as everything her mother had said to her registered. In a panic, the girl shoved her feet the rest of the way into the sneakers before snagging a gray backpack off the back of the chair as she bolted out of the room.

"Oh for the love of fish sticks, why'd I oversleep today?" She blurted out, racing down the stairs two at a time. Predictably the teen's mother was standing at the bottom, a knowing smirk on her face.

"Good morning, Quinn," the older woman said with a loving smile as she followed the girl through the house. "Did you sleep well?"

"Sure did Ma, though I might have slept a bit too long."

"Of course you did," the girl's mother chuckled softly and handed her a paper bag. "Once I realized you had turned your alarm clock off I decided to pack you some breakfast. After all, it's going to be a while before I can make you another meal so I might well do this one last time before you strike out on your own."

"Yeah…" Quinn took the sack and put it in her bag, surreptitiously glancing at the clock. It was only 6:45, and the train didn't leave until 7. That was plenty of time for her to make it to the station and get on board.

"I'm going to miss you mom," Quinn turned back to the woman and gave her a quick hug, bouncing a bit in her childish wish to get on with her journey. Seeing this the woman smiled and ruffled the girl's tentacles before reluctantly moving to hold open the door.

"Oh, don't let me keep you any longer. I know how important this is to you, sweetie. Make sure you call me once you get to Inkopolis. I love you, Quinn."

"I love you too, Ma. Tell Harley I'll miss him!" With that parting remark, Quinn raced out the door and down the street towards the station. Her mother, who was named Autumn, watched her go with a fond and wistful look on her face.

"They grow up so fast, don't they?" She remarked with a sigh, a sad smile forming. "Oh Jonathan, if only you were still here to see how our children were doing."

A faint cry of delight suddenly split the calm and tranquil atmosphere of the place, echoing out from inside the house. It was the last resident of the humble abode, a ten year old inkling named Harley. He had apparently decided to pick now as the perfect time to get into some sort of mischief, and with another sigh, the woman turned from the door to go see what was the matter.

She did, however, allow herself one last cursory glance over her shoulder in the direction of the station. No doubt Quinn would be on her way there right now, getting ready to head for the big city. It would certainly be a lot less lively without the young inkling around, though she was confident that Harley would find some way to fill his older sister's shoes.

"Ma! There's a lizard in my room, come and see it! Can I keep it, please, please, please?"

"A lizard? I swear these kids will be the death of me one day," she muttered with a shake of her head before raising her voice. "I'll be right there Harley! Whatever you do don't move!"

* * *

Oh kelp, kelp, kelp, you really goofed up this time Quinn ol' girl," Quinn panted as she sprinted through the town, buildings passing by in a blur. There was the small school she had attended as a young girl, right next to that the library where she could recall checking out information on turf wars and then kind old Mrs. Porter's general store. All these places and more were filled with fond memories, but now they seemed so drab and confining compared to the allure of Inkopolis.

"You just had to sleep in today, didn't you? You couldn't get your lazy butt out of bed for a train ride? How the kelp do you think you're going to make it in Inkopolis with an attitude like that?"

She continued her verbal self-beratement all the way to the grand brick building on the south side of town. A quick glance at her phone showed that only ten minutes had elapsed. She had made it with time to spare. With a celebratory cheer, she strode confidently into the station... only for her look of glee to slowly morph into one of shock, confusion, and horror. There were no crowds of stragglers trying to board the train, no families saying last minute goodbyes. The platform was completely deserted, the tracks abandoned. Wherever the train was, it wasn't at the station anymore.

"... the kelp? I know I'm here on time...did I get the wrong day or something?" Quinn frowned as she pulled out her ticket to study it, confirming she had the right date and time. Glancing around as she slowly walked into the large room, she soon spotted a sign of life. Sitting behind the ticket window was an old horseshoe crab, snoozing away the day.

"Hey, old man!" Quinn hurried over to him, doing her best to stifle a chuckle as he bolted upright and smashed his head against a shelf due to the thunderous greeting. "Where's the train? It's supposed to be here for another five minutes! Look, I've got my ticket and everything!"

"The train reached full capacity at 6:30 and departed ahead of schedule," he replied with a peeved look directed at her. "You'll have to wait for the next one. Go home and try again in a month."

"A month? You've got to be kidding me, this is the only place around for miles that has a train station! What do you mean try again in a month?"

"Now you look here you young whippersnapper. A month is not a very long time at all, and if you have any sort of brain in that head of yours you'd not only have gotten here earlier but you'd also have known that the passenger trains have been running on a monthly basis for almost a quarter of a year now."

"You can't be serious…"

"I am. Now go home to your parents." The grumpy crab shut his window and switched off the lights. "Kids these days, fire in their blood and not a lick of common sense to temper it with. They need to learn respect for their elders."

With that he flopped back down onto the desk, ready to sleep away the rest of his shift. Quinn stared at the now closed ticket booth in horror before running over to the board that displayed the schedule. Much to her chagrin, it was as the man had said - the next passenger train to Inkopolis wasn't scheduled to arrive for another month. Trains that bore supplies and labor crews that were working on building some sort of machine nearby came in biweekly, but sneaking away on one of those would be nearly impossible. No doubt the inexperienced girl would stick out like a sore thumb.

"You really messed up big time, didn't you?" She muttered in disgust before shaking her head and starting to wearily trudge out of the station. However, a flash of movement caught her eyes, bringing the teen to a stop. Was that another cephalopod scurrying around a bend in the tracks? Why would someone go out there?

"You know...come to think of it, who's going to stop me if I walk all the way to Inkopolis?" With a thoughtful frown, Quinn studied the map on the wall. It would be dangerous, but if everything went well she'd be in the next town by nightfall. Would it be a risk? Absolutely. Quinn had no weapon, and without cell phone service in the wilderness if something catastrophic happened there would be no way to summon a rescue. But on the other hand, what was there to really be afraid of out there? Maybe an occasional Salmonid or two, but certainly not anything that posed a great threat.

Besides, like most teenagers, Quinn was an inquisitive inkling. She wanted to find out who that mysterious and shadowy figure was. Perhaps it was another traveler like herself, trying to get to the de facto capital of inkling civilization rather than remain out in the country. This, more than anything, helped the girl decide what to do. Her mind made up, Quinn stole one last look around the station, making sure that no prying eyes were watching. Then, with a confident gait, she jumped over the turnstile and darted across the platform before hopping down to the tracks below. Wasting no time, the inkling girl scampered out of the building, breathing in the clean salty air as she began making her way down the track.

For several hours she trudged along the tracks, alone in the overgrown vestiges of nature. Silence permeated the air, broken only by the twittering of birds and gentle splashing of the waves against the land. It was a breathtaking place to be certain. The steel tracks wound along a set of sheer cliffs, great magnificent walls of stone that steeply pointed high into the sky and plunged down into the sea below. Clear blue waves lapped at the shore, the toxicity of the water hidden by the dazzling bits of light that reflected off of the whitecaps. Occasionally gulls flew overhead, cawing and laughing among themselves, or one of the unevolved sea creatures breached the surface of the water. But in terms of intelligent life, Quinn was alone.

This was disappointing to be certain. One of the main reasons why Quinn had left was to see if she could catch up to that shadow, but it appeared that her hesitant pace at the start caused too much of a delay.

"They didn't trip and fall into the water, did they?" Quinn muttered, peering over the edge of the cliff to look at the sea far below. It certainly was a long drop, and unintentionally a bit of adrenaline pumped through her veins at the thought of falling. With a rather shaky posture, the teen backed up against the rocky wall, putting distance between herself and the sheer cliff.

"It's okay, Quinn. Just don't look down and don't think about how you're one misstep away from certain death and it'll be fine." She spoke with a false reassuring tone, trying to convince herself that things would be okay. "There's nothing to worry about, nothing at all."

"Where is Octavia? She was supposed to report back from her scouting ten minutes ago."

An unfamiliar voice echoed in the air, snapping Quinn out of her train of thought. So someone else was out here after all? Well, two creatures at the very least - the one speaking and the one called Octavia. For a moment Quinn considered revealing herself but something about the way they spoke gave her pause. The accent was strange, atypical for how inklings spoke around Splashtown, and the stiff mannerisms were unlike anything casual friends would use. And then there was the matter of the fact that this Octavia was supposed to be coming back from a scouting mission. That in and of itself was highly unusual. Now if Quinn had been smart she would have slipped off somewhere and hid, but she was simply too curious to pass up an opportunity to see who these two strangers were.

Quinn frowned before creeping along the wall so she could just peek around the next curve in the cliff. What she saw almost caused her hearts to stop in the midst of their triple beat pattern. A group of bipedal creatures dressed in combat gear was standing on the tracks, at least half a dozen of them. These were no ordinary inklings, however. Though they had tentacles and walked about on two legs and were obviously evolved cephalopods, they were most certainly not one of her own kind. Instead, they were a group of creatures that at this point most people thought had completely died out.

"Octolings…" Quinn bit her tongue as soon as the word escaped her lips, preventing one of the dozen or so cuss words that sprang to mind from following it. How could they be here? Why were they here? Splashtown was out of the way, to put it mildly. There was nothing of interest in the area, save for whatever government project was being constructed to the north. Quinn knew not what the work crews were building, just that something was being built. But it would certainly give a reason for octolings to be investigating.

Musings on what exactly the squadron was doing in the area and how it might have related to the project, however, were best saved for another time. At the moment, Quinn had to get out of the area before she could be spotted. The Great Turf War over a century ago had soured inkling-octarian relations, and chances were the girl would be splatted on sight if the octoling soldiers discovered her presence. With that thought in mind, Quinn jerked her head back around the corner, only to come face to face with one of the unexpected enemies.

Judging from the look on her face, it was clear the octoling did not expect Quinn to turn around. Both members of the unusual pair were taken a bit by surprise, and the inkling was the one to recover first. Thinking quickly Quinn tackled the octoling, flinging a hand over her assailant's mouth to prevent a warning cry from slipping out to alert the others. A dull thud, thankfully unnoticed by the octoling squadron, could be heard as the pair hit the ground. Briefly, they scuffled first one winning and then the other though it was clear who was the better fighter. With no combat training, Quinn was clearly outmatched, and the octoling wrestling her to the ground was strong. Soon her hands were pinned, and the triumphant octoling prepared to raise the alarm.

Seeing no other option, Quinn managed to awkwardly knee her captor in the gut. The breath rushed out of the octoling's lungs, and she dropped her weapon while reflexively curling into the fetal position, trying to recover from the blow. Quinn dove on top of her, ripping the weapon away from her foe before shakily taking aim and pulling the trigger. A few ink bullets flew out, striking the octoling in the face. They didn't do much, instead trickling down her cheeks and dripping onto the ground before the gun ran out of ink. Quinn sighed before electing to go with the brute force option and smashed the weapon against the octoling's head.

The octoling let out a small squeak and went slightly cross-eyed before collapsing, out cold. No doubt she'd have a sizeable bruise in that area later, but at the moment that was the least of Quinn's concerns.

"Did anyone else just hear that?"

Voices, and they were getting closer. Quinn paled before shifting into a squid and sinking down into one of the small puddles of ink that had dripped onto the ground. Was it a risky hiding spot? Absolutely, but along these sheer cliffs it was either flee and be chased, hide, or jump into the water and hope for a quick death. Hiding was most certainly the riskiest of the options, but if she got caught she'd be dead anyway.

No sooner had the teenager made it to her position did the squadron round the bend, their black and red tentacles sticking out like a sore thumb among the dusky tan rocks.

"Octavia!" The leader, a tall octoling with kelp woven into her tentacles, looked shocked as she observed her fallen comrade. To be fair, the sight of their squad member lying out cold on the ground probably had never crossed their minds. It wasn't like they were near a large city or anything. The closest civilization was miles away, and even then most inklings wouldn't want to mess with octolings. The group swarmed over to surround Octavia, some of them standing mere inches away from Quinn. She stiffened and held her breath, hoping that no one would discover her.

"What do we do, Odette?"

"Yeah, what do we do? Should we investigate?"

"Quite you lot," the leader ordered in a frustrated tone. "And as for what we are doing about this we are to proceed with the assumption that Octavia's mission got compromised. Fan out and search the perimeter. You there, contact the extraction team and order them to get here on the double."

Inside the puddle, Quinn paled and let out a tiny squeak before she could stop herself. Instantly she began to quietly panic. What if they had heard her? That would've been disastrous. The ocolings began to spread out, peeking behind rocks and searching the cliffs for someone or something that could have caused their teammate to be knocked out. Odette drew near the small blob of ink the inkling was hiding in, frowning as she knelt down to study it.

"Strange...no clashing ink colors…" the woman mused quietly to herself. "Almost as if we had a traitor among us…"

Quinn was still as the stony-faced cliffs, trying not to move, not to breathe for fear she could be discovered. Before Odette could investigate any further, however, a shout came from one of her cohorts.

"Odette! The retrieval squadron will be here in five minutes. We are to proceed to the rendezvous point."

"Very well...we shall have to investigate this matter another day." The leader of the group stood up, brushing her black tentacles out of her face before walking back to her team. "You two, grab Octavia and then we're moving out."

"Yes Ma'am!" The team saluted, a few of them picking up their fallen comrade, before hurrying after Odette. Quinn waited in the puddle until they were far out of sight, not daring to retreat from her hiding place. Only after the five minutes had elapsed did she finally slip out of the ink, shaking her head a few times in disbelief as her hearts beat in a fast triple beat due to fear and adrenaline.

"No way...they're supposed to be extinct," the girl muttered, a thoughtful frown on her face. "And what are they doing so close to Splashtown anyway? There's really nothing noteworthy here. That figure I saw back at the station...that had to have been one of them. But still...why come here?"

The teenager sighed, trying to make sense of this puzzle. Splashtown was literally in the boonies of the boonies, so far out in the country that it was considered rural even by those standards. It made no sense for octolings to come here. But yet they had been scouting for something. An attack, perhaps? At that thought Quinn paled and turned around, starting to run back down the tracks towards her home. She had to warn them, had to go protect her family, had to-

"Wait just a cod darned minute!" Suddenly the short girl came screeching to a halt. "Would any of them believe me anyway? I mean, octarians are supposed to be extinct. And there's no weapons there to fight them off either…"

Now that threw a wrench into her plan, so to speak. With no weapons, it would be next to impossible to defend her home, and no one would really believe her anyway. This was something that she couldn't do on her own, much as she hated to admit it. No, Quinn would need help, and the best place to find that would be Inkopolis.

Her mind made up, the inkling girl turned smartly on her heel and began walking towards the distant city once more. She'd go to Inkopolis and find some people to help. It wasn't a foolproof plan, but it was better than going back home and fighting a losing battle against an invading force.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Two weeks later, Quinn stood on a hill, overlooking a wide street. In the middle she could see what looked like a battlefield, with faint splotches of color flying everywhere, steadily filling in the area. It was a peculiar sight for the country girl, but she recognized it from the few magazines she had read about the city.

"That must be Urchin Underpass," she gasped, all out of breath. Indeed, the girl was weary and sore from her journey. Most nights the girl was fortunate enough to have made it to a town along the tracks, enabling her to buy food and sleep in a bed for the night. But even with that, the fourteen year old was still exhausted. Two weeks of hard walking took a toll on anyone, and the inkling girl was no exception.

But seeing Urchin Underpass brought a flicker of light to her weary soul, and as she looked up that flicker only grew brighter as she stared at the skyline of the city. It was still some distance away, but even from here it was a majestic sight to behold. Misty fog hung in front of it, shrouding the finer details in grayness, but at the same time lent an ethereal quality to the ghostly silhouettes. Finally, after so long, she was almost there.

"I hope mom's not too worried about me...I did say I'd call her every day," Quinn sighed and began trekking down the hill. "Eh...I'll call her first thing as soon as I find a place to stay, tell her the cell service was bad or something."

"Nyxie!"

A sudden shout split the air and Quinn looked around only to yelp as an orange tentacled inkling girl crashed down in front of her and threw her arms around her in a hug.

"Nyx, you're back! You're finally back! I can't believe it! You finally came back after all these years," she cried as she continued to hug Quinn, squeezing the living daylights out of her. "I knew you didn't die! I just knew it!"

"Ugh...ah...can't...breathe!" She choked out in response, turning slightly blue.

"Oh whoops, sorry!" The stranger let go, allowing Quinn to double over coughing and gasping. It was only then that this newcomer got a good look at her, causing her shoulders to droop.

"Wait...you're not her…"

"Flora you can't go rushing off like that," two more squids touched down from their own super jumps. These two were both boys, one a green tentacled inkling and the other one bearing tentacles with a dark blue hue.

"Sorry...I saw black tentacles and I got excited because I thought Nyx was back…"

"Flora, you know very well that Nyx is de-"

"I don't believe it!" Flora instantly interrupted the dark blue tentacled inkling. "Someone of her skill getting killed? You've seen her in a fight, she can hold her own. There's no way she's dead! She can't be dead!"

"But sis-"

"Leave it," the blue tentacled inkling whispered quietly. "You know she still isn't over what happened all those years ago. Nyx was one of her best friends, losing someone like that is hard."

"Um, hate to interrupt you all but...who are you?" Quinn had been standing there quietly, not really saying anything due to her confusion. After all, it wasn't every day that three strangers fell out of the sky and practically landed on her, let alone act like she was a long-lost friend.

"Ah, right, where are our manners?" The blue inkling laughed sheepishly, adjusting the long, thin bag that hung over his shoulder. "My name's Yusei, and then these two are Flora and Fabio."

"We're twins!" Flora piped up, looking at her. "Um...sorry for scaring you. I just saw the black tentacles and I guess I got a little carried away."

"It's okay...wait...what do you mean by 'saw the black tentacles'?" The inkling girl looked shocked. "You mean there are others like me here in the city?"

"It's a long story," Fabio admitted. "We knew a girl named Nyx and well...you're the spitting image of her back when she was fourteen. It's kind of creepy actually. If you had some red contacts you'd look just like a young version of her."

"No way…" Quinn blinked, surprise etched on her features. There were actually others with black tentacles like she had. For so long the girl had assumed she was the only one with naturally black tentacles since it was obvious Callie dyed hers. It was so strange, so foreign to think of there being more, but it was a welcome strangeness. Quinn didn't feel as alone now, knowing that there were others that had tentacles the same hue as hers.

"Can I meet her? Please," she begged, looking at the trio hopefully. That same hope was squashed, however, as they hesitated, pained expressions crossing their faces.

"She...died about two years ago…" Fabio trailed off. "Got into a fight and was shoved in the water."

"She's not dead," Flora protested stubbornly.

"As far as we know she is," Yusei amended. "She wasn't exactly an extrovert anyway...kept to herself a lot of the time."

"That's a polite way of putting it," Fabio muttered. "She's as social as a lionfish."

"Oh…" Quinn sighed, a somewhat mournful look on her face. "Well...I'm sorry for your loss. It sounds like she meant a lot to you all."

"Yeah…" Flora mumbled, her shoulders drooping a bit. "I'm going to go ink turf before we have to go. Nice meeting you Quinn, and sorry for the mistaken identity."

Before anyone could say anything the girl shifted into a squid and super jumped away. Fabio groaned but bid Quinn farewell and quickly followed his sister. Now it was just Yusei and Quinn left, on the hill, standing in a somewhat awkward silence. Eventually, the boy sighed and shook his head.

"Sorry about that...losing Nyx was hard on her…" Yusei muttered. "So, you new in town Quinn?"

"Yep, walked here from Splashtown," she explained. "It was crazy, I ran into some octolings and everything!"

"Yeah, good story kid," Yusei chuckled. "Everyone knows the octarians are extinct. Besides, isn't Splashtown hundreds of kilometers to the north? You'd never be able to walk all the way here."

"But I did!" Quinn protested, a fervent look in her eyes. "I missed the train so I walked all the way here and I ran into some octolings and they almost killed me but I-"

"Quinn," Yusei stopped her with a raised hand. "You probably imagined the whole thing, okay? The walking, maybe not, but the octolings? They aren't alive, and if you keep on talking like that people are going to label you as crazy. That's far from being fresh."

"...but...but…"

"Hey, don't sweat it, I mean, inklings can get some pretty vivid dreams at times. So, if your new around these parts you probably don't know your way around." The older boy quickly moved to change the subject. "Come on, I have a bit of time before I have to go fetch the twins. I'll give you a quick tour."

"Um...okay?" Quinn blinked before yelping as Yusei gently grabbed her wrist and began walking down the hill. She stumbled a bit before rushing after him, trying to keep up with his quick pace and long strides. The blue inkling led her to a flat area near the road, styled in a manner similar to that of Urchin Underpass. It was deserted, save for a few pigeons here and there. Once they arrived Yusei let go of Quinn's wrist and began rummaging around in the bag on his back.

"Think I have a shooter in here somewhere…" he mumbled, rooting around a bit more before pulling out a splattershot. "Normally I'd teach you how to use a splattershot jr. since that's what all the rookies get but I left that at home, so this will have to do. How much do you know about fighting, Quinn?"

"Um...I've watched videos and read books on the subject...other than that octoling-"

"...I keep on telling you that was a dream…"

"Sorry! I can't help it, it felt real!" Quinn groaned and facepalmed. "Ugh, forget it. No, I don't have any experience fighting but I've read the basics."

"Hm...in that case we can have a little fun." Yusei's eyes gleamed mischievously as he unstrapped the long bag from his back and pulled the cover off it. Underneath the cloth was an e-liter 3k scope. With an air of nonchalance, he picked it up and gave it a cursory inspection.

"What exactly are you doing?" Quinn blinked in confusion, causing Yusei to grin.

"Oh, nothing much," He said before partially charging up a shot and tapping her with it. "Tag, you're it!"

With that he took off running, ignoring the slight yelp as Quinn awkwardly sprayed a puddle of ink on the ground and rinsed the ink off.

"Hey, what gives!" She yelled, chasing after him.

"Catch me!"

"Why?"

"Well we can't exactly just fight you know," Yusei called over his shoulder. "And just running you through the standard training course would be boring, especially since you already know the basics. If you want to win this little game you better catch me before we get to the launchpad that takes us back to Inkopolis."

"But how do I do that?" Quinn demanded before yelping as the older boy whirled around and let another partially charged shot fly, barely striking her.

"You've got a gun, use it." Before Quinn could ask any more questions, Yusei took off again. The black tentacled inkling sighed and shook her head before resuming her chase, spraying ink out of her gun. As she ran she took stock of the few burst bombs the gun came with. Perhaps those would be useful since right now Yusei not only outranged her but also had a head start.

Coming to a screeching halt she began looking around the area, eventually seeing a raised wall. Her quarry was gone, but as Quinn snuck a peek around the partition she could see him waiting with his charger in the ready position. No doubt he was planning on blasting her as soon as she came running around the corner. Seeing this the girl retreated a bit and inked a path up the wall and slipped into the ink, climbing up behind him. Right before the top the inkling paused and took a deep breath.

"Banzai!" The younger inkling leapt over the top, gun blazing as she came down. Yusei, to his credit, didn't flinch, instead dropping down into his own ink and swimming away, just out of range. He emerged and charged up another shot, this one flying over Quinn's head in a warning.

"Not bad," Yusei smirked before tossing a few burst bombs at the girl. One of them hit her in the stomach, causing Quinn to double over and stumbled backward. While she was thus distracted, the blue tentacled inkling ducked past her and resumed his run.

"Oh for the love of ink…" Quinn sighed and shook off the blow from the burst bombs before darting after him. He was moving a bit faster now, as if realizing that she would not be as easy to trick. No doubt the older teen had been expecting an easy win, but that was turning out not to be the case.

The chase continued, blue blur being chased by black as the two inklings darted all over the place. Yusei seemed to take a bit of mirth from hanging around until he was just within Quinn's range, only to either zip out of the way or tap her with another partially charged shot. Perhaps it was a bit cruel, but better for Quinn to have her first experience with an irritating opponent here with a friend rather than in her very first turf war.

"Stand still won't you?" Quinn growled as she failed to try and get him again.

"Yeah right," Yusei laughed in reply. "Your opponents aren't going to do that in a turf war just because you asked them too. Why should I?"

"..." Quinn sighed and tossed a few more burst bombs as they ran into a wider space. The pair zigged and zagged around the area, Quinn almost cornering Yusei a few times, before the older teen shifted into a squid and dove into the ink. Lightly leaping over a small gap, the boy took off around the corner. Quinn wasted no time in mimicking his actions and following him.

Her quarry was already out of sight, causing the girl to groan in frustration and pick up her pace. Down a slightly twisted path she ran, caged in by brick walls and the occasional grate until one of the metal partitions blocked her bath. Thinking fast she turned into a squid and swam underneath it, only to unexpectedly plummet to the ground as it ended in a steep drop.

Much to her delight and confusion, the girl ended up landing straight on Yusei. The pair toppled to the ground with dull thuds, and Quinn seized her moment to toss a burst bomb right in his face.

"H-hey!" He spluttered, wiping the ink out of his eyes. "Did you really have to do it in the face?"

"Give what you put me through I'd say yes," Quinn replied. "Why'd you stop? Thought I'd give up?"

"Ah...not exactly…" Yusei trailed off and pointed to a large UFO type craft that was lying on the ground nearby. It was a dingy old thing, tiny bits of rust starting to form and dents covering the outside. Scattered pieces of metal shrapnel littered the ground around it, coupled with jagged gashes marring the earth. Obviously this strange vehicle had crashed and laid there for some time, but who it belonged to appeared to be a mystery.

"What on earth is this thing?" Quinn ran up to it and began running her hand over the metal structure, careful to avoid any sharp edges. "Some kind of machine?"

"Looks like it...it wasn't here the last time I was in the training grounds…" He muttered something else under his breath before shaking his head. "Well, whatever it is, it doesn't belong here, and it's kind of creepy. You caught me anyway, so let's cut the rest of the game short and head off to Inkopolis."

With that, he set off down the path again, motioning for Quinn to follow him. After taking one last glance at the strange UFO she hurried after the boy, soon catching up. They walked in silence for a while, scaling a few walls at the very back of the compound to reach a launchpad. Finally, Yusei turned to look at Quinn.

"This launchpad will take us to the square," he said as he took his splattershot back from her. "Fair warning, black tentacles aren't that common around here so you might get some strange looks and whispers regarding your ah...unique appearance."

"So what you're saying is that I'm going to get stared at and possibly mocked. Great…" Quinn sighed, a resigned look on her face. "Well, can't say I wasn't exactly expecting that. Shall we get going?"

"Sounds good to me." Yusei shifted into a blue squid, swam onto the launchpad, and rocketed up into the sky. Quinn took a deep breath before following him, her tinier squid form shooting up into the clouds. It was cold up here, the girl shivering as she sailed through the air. Below rapid smears of green and brown passed, gradually turning gray as buildings began to start spearing the sky. Here and there were wide open spaces - parks or ink battle arenas most likely - strange sights in the urban maze. One such wide open space appeared to be their target, as soon the descent began. Details became clearer the closer the ground got, Quinn now able to see the yellow and white paint that dotted the streets, the subway station, several shop-like buildings, and of course the famous Inkopolis Tower.

True to Yusei's words, when she landed several nearby sea creatures did double takes, and a few whispers broke out. Quinn groaned but did her best to ignore them, instead looking around the plaza in wonder and excitement. She was finally here, after so many months of wishing, dreaming, and two hard weeks of walking! Finally, the girl had arrived in Inkopolis.

"Heh...what's the matter, catfish got your tongue?" Yusei joked, smiling at the amazed look on her face.

"Holy squid ink...this place is incredible! Pictures don't do it justice!" Wide-eyed, Quinn turned in a circle, taking the entire place in. A few inklings nearby laughed good-naturedly at her excitement.

"Ah, to be young and new again," one of them said, patting her on the shoulder as they walked past. "Good luck making it big here rookie."

"Thanks!" Quinn waved as they walked into a nearby shop and vanished from view. Behind her, Yusei cleared his throat, causing her to jump.

"I hate to cut this short but I have to go do some stuff, so I'll just point out the buildings real quick," he said before gesturing around the plaza. "That tall building in front of us is Inkopolis Tower, to the right is the Battle Dojo and the Shoal. To your left is Booyah Base, there are stores in there that sell turf war gear, including stuff for newcomers like you. Fair warning though, the shopkeepers can kind of be snobby, and Moe's got one heck of a demeaning personality. Just don't let it get under your skin and you'll be fine. Behind us is the subway, and then right next to it is the House of Hundred."

"House of Hundred? What's that?"

"It's where the top one hundred ink battlers live," Yusei turned to look at the tall building. "They're the ones in charge of making sure the city runs smoothly, think of it like the government and police force I guess. It's one exclusive club though, supposedly the only way to even be considered for joining is to have one of the current members notice you."

"Sounds creepy…" Quinn shivered, causing Yusei to quickly adopt an unconcerned look.

"Nah, it's just to prevent everyone and their brother from begging for a chance to join. I mean, most inklings would kill for a chance to be considered even the hundredth best player."

At his words Quinn edged away from him, causing him to chuckle again.

"Like I said, most inklings would, not all. I myself really don't see any point in trying to get in. If I do, I do." He pulled his phone out of his pocket and checked the time before sighing. "Well, I've got to run, but good luck with things. I'd avoid any back alleys and the sewers if I were you - just because this place is a haven for fun doesn't mean that there aren't suspicious characters around."

"Um...okay?" Quinn blinked a few times before shrugging. "Well, you know this place better than I do. Thanks for all the help."

"No problem. See you around, Quinn." With that, Yusei gave a quick salute before walking off into the crowd. The girl quickly lost sight of him, and for a moment she wondered where he had gone. That all changed though as she looked around the plaza once more.

"Alright, let's see here," the young teen said with a grin. "First things first, go get my turf war gear, and then do turf wars!"

Letting out a small whoop of excitement, much to the amusement of the other citizens nearby, Quinn ran towards Booyah Base and into the closest shop. Instantly the scent of leather filled the air, courtesy of the big display of boots that was planted right in front of the door. Other shoes in all sorts of riotous colors lined shelves and display cases on the walls. Here and there were ottomans for customers to sit on while they tried on wares, the occasional table dotting the store along with them. Despite it being the middle of the day, it was deserted, save for a tall tiger prawn jamming out to music behind the cash register. He was wearing a puffy jacket that looked suspiciously like fried tempura batter, and on each foot was a shoe, even the tiny ones that he didn't use to stand.

"Hello?"

"AH!" At Quinn's greeting, he shot bolt upright, whipping his headphones off with a look of panic as his gaze frantically darted around the shop. No doubt he had been rather startled by the unexpected customer, who for her part was staring at him in concern.

"Um…"

"Don't frighten me like that squiddo! You almost gave me a heart attack," the prawn grumbled, straightening his jacket as he sized her up. "And no offense but you aren't exactly fresh enough for my shop at the moment. Go do some turf wars and come back later."

"I came in here to get some gear so I can do turf wars," Quinn explained pointedly, looking at the older fellow's nametag. "I heard you sold gear to beginners, Mr. Sean, or is that just a lie?"

"Oh, the cream basics." Sean nodded his head and walked towards the back of the store. "What size, squiddo?"

"Seven, please." Quinn wandered around the shop as the owner went to the back, looking at all the different shoes. A pair of black ones caught her eye, and quickly she moved over to examine them. According to the tag they had an ability called damage up, but what exactly that did Quinn wasn't sure. The name seemed pretty self-explanatory though.

"Here you go." A box was thrust into her face, breaking the girl out of her train of thought. "Try them on to see if they fit."

"Okay." Quinn plopped down on an ottoman and pulled off her dirty sneakers, causing the resident shopkeeper to do a double take.

"Hey, how come your sneaks are so dirty?"

"Huh?" She glanced upwards in the midst of pulling her new shoes on. "Oh, I walked here from Splashtown - missed the only train out here and I didn't feel like waiting a month. Wasn't too bad of a time, actually, I ended up staying in most of the towns along the way overnight."

"Hm…" Sean studied the sneakers again. Splashtown, if he was remembering correctly, was a fair distance away, easily several hundred klicks to the north. Those shoes had to have been well crafted for them to have survived such a journey without utterly disintegrating.

"These fit." Quinn's words broke him out of his train of thought, and he glanced upwards to see her standing there expectantly. "How much do I owe you?"

"Eh, they're on the house squiddo. Think of it as thanks for stopping by my shop."

"Thank you so much, Mr. Sean."

"Call me Crusty, squiddo," he replied with a shrug. "Everyone else does. You heading to get the rest of your gear?"

"Yeah," Quinn replied with a nod. "Hopefully they're as nice as you are."

"They probably won't be, except for Annie," Crusty muttered as he waved goodbye to Quinn. "Watch out for Moe, he's got one mean temper. And Sheldon, he's rather reluctant to part with his weapons."

* * *

True to Crusty's words, the rest of the shopkeepers were not as friendly. Jelonzo, the owner of the shirt shop, took one look at her before throwing a medium yellow t-shirt in her direction. Quinn had cringed upon seeing the color. Now, some hues were nice - in fact, the girl was rather fond of the color blue - but yellow wasn't her color at all. The fact that she had to wear it, well...that didn't really thrill the girl. Then it was off to the hat shop. The anemone in charge, Annie, was nice enough if a bit mild and timid. But her clownfish companion, Moe...well, it was clear why multiple sea creatures had told her to watch out for him. He was an ill-tempered little hellion, to put it mildly. The entire time Quinn was in the shop he had hurled insult after insult at her, first going after her freshness, then her black tentacles, and finally her family. That more than anything struck a nerve, and by the time she had left Quinn was seeing red in anger. Although she had gotten a free streetstyle cap out of it along with her white headband so not everything was bad.

"Too bad I can't wear you in turf wars until I'm fresher," Quinn muttered as she held up the hat, walking down the back alleys. After the incident with Moe, she had decided to explore for a bit to calm down before visiting the last store. Inkopolis was certainly a fascinating place, full of hustle and bustle that was unfamiliar to the girl. Other evolved sea creatures were everywhere, a far cry from the quiet laziness of her home. Every time Quinn turned around it seemed like there were more and more of them, interspersed between the tall buildings and advertisements. Even the back alleys weren't empty. On the contrary, several inklings wandered in and out of them to go visit a sea urchin named Spyke. He was quite the character, flirting with Quinn the entire time she had spoken to him - even if he had, like the other shopkeepers, refused to sell her anything until she was fresher.

It was getting quite late now, the sun starting to dip below the horizon as the citizens of the city slowly began to drift off to their homes. Quinn, realizing this, paled and broke into a run. She still had to stop at Ammo Knights and find a place to stay for the night. Sleeping outdoors was not high on her to do list, but with all of her exploration it seemed like that would be a very real possibility.

"You just really had to lose track of time again, didn't you?" The girl berated herself as she ran, darting across the plaza and over to Booyah Base. Fortunately, it appeared that Sheldon's store was still open, and Quinn wasted no time in running inside.

"...Can I help you?"

The words were spoken in the dry voice of someone who had been forced to endure something unpleasant. When Quinn turned around, looking for the source of the voice, she came face to face with a short horseshoe crab. He had an expression on his visage showing that he was unimpressed by her level of freshness that everyone in Inkopolis seemed to be concerned about - his nose all wrinkled in distaste and eyes narrowed in disgust.

"I came to buy a splattershot jr," Quinn sighed, rolling her eyes at the crab's obvious first impression of her. The crab, for his part, sighed and muttered something about there being too many rookies in his grandpappy's store before walking over towards the display where the guns were kept. Just as he was about to unlock it, however, the door flew open with a clatter.

"Oi, Sheldon!" An orange inkling walked into the shop, followed by three more guys - light blue, purple, and yellow respectively. "We came to buy some more weapons."

"Ryker, it's nice to see you!" Sheldon quickly abandoned Quinn, scurrying over to the newcomers. "You're looking fairly fresh as always. So, what are you boys in the mood for today."

"I want the hydra splatling," Ryker replied with a grin.

"While you're at it, I need the e-liter 3k scope," the purple tentacled boy, who was named Liam, added.

"Don't forget a tri-slosher nouveau for me!" Dashiel, the light blue inkling, piped up right after Liam was done speaking.

"And to finish things off, I want the luna blaster neo," the yellow tentacled teen, who went by Zane, added. Sheldon nodded and began scurrying around the shop to gather the requested weapons, a huge smile on his face. The four boys idly chatted with each other as they waited, while Quinn stared at the whole scene in shock. Eventually, she recovered a scowl on her face, and pulled Sheldon aside.

"In case you forgot, I was here first," she said angrily. The horseshoe crab shook her hand off of his arm, a frown on his face.

"Company policy," he replied. "Fresh squids get fresh service first."

With that, he went back to running around the shop. Quinn growled but resigned herself to having to wait. Unfortunately for her, however, her little outburst had caught Ryker's attention.

"Well, what's this?" He grabbed the teen and spun her around to face him, the other three boys blocking her only escape routes. "Yet another moldy rookie, hoping to make it big? How lame is that?"

"You got a problem with that, bub?" Quinn's retort was heated, her temper flaring. This caused Liam to laugh.

"Oh, look out, the noob's going to throw a temper tantrum," he said in mock fear. "Someone, anyone, please help me! I'm so scared!"

He broke off his sarcastic monologue, the older teens laughing. It was an ugly laugh, one full of scorn and loathing. Quinn tensed, wishing that she still had the splattershot Yusei had lent her earlier. She wanted to splat them all so badly and see how they liked her then. At the very least it would shut them up for a few hours.

"Hey Ryker, maybe we should teach her a few lessons?" Zane snickered a bit before pulling out his luna blaster. "You see this kid? It's called a gun. And if you press down on the trigger like this…"

He pressed it, causing a ball of ink to fly out and explode in Quinn's face. Yellow ink dripped off of her tentacles, and the shock of it caused her to see double for a few moments as the clashing ink color painfully bubbled against her skin. Dashiel winced in sympathy, while the other boys laughed and pulled out their own weapons, "teaching" the girl how to use them. Soon she was covered in a multitude of ink splotches, her white shirt and new shoes stained, while corrosive burns had begun to form due to the prolonged contact with the other ink. Quinn clenched her fists, fighting back the urge to just snap and strangle them all.

"Aw, is the little newbie going to cry," Ryker asked in a sickeningly sweet tone. "Go on ahead, why don't you run on home to mommy. It's for your own good, you'll never make it in this city."

"Ryker...don't you think this is going a bit too far now?" Dashiell asked nervously.

"How much do you want to bet on that?" Quinn demanded, fighting back anger and tears. Right now all she wanted to do was pay for her weapon and leave before she ended up getting into a fight. Thus, she endured the taunts from her tormentors for only a few moments more until finally, fed up with everything, she grabbed the keys off of Sheldon's belt. Ignoring the crab's protests the younger teen unlocked the case that the splattershot jrs were kept in and pulled out the first one her hands came into contact with. Next to come out was the patch of splat bombs and the ink tank, before the door was slammed shut. Pushing her way past Liam, Quinn tossed a wad of cash and the keys on the counter before storming towards the exit, attaching her ink tank to her back and hooking it up to her gun.

"Hold it, rookie." Ryker would have said more, but at this point, Quinn, extremely upset with everything that had transpired, pointed her gun at his face and pressed the trigger. A furious storm of black ink shot out, coating the older boy from head to toe. He stood there for a moment before growling and inking a small puddle on the ground to jump into and wash the ink off. Quinn hadn't stuck around to survey her handiwork, instead making a break for the door. Sadly Zane and Liam caught up with her, the former pulling away her weapons while the latter pinned her arms to the side. Ryker stormed over, wrapping his hands around her throat.

"Do you have a death wish, rookie?" His face was bright red in anger as he yelled. "Well do you? Huh? You have any idea who you're messing with?"

"No, since I didn't realize a pompous jerk like you thought he was famous," Quinn croaked out, turning a bit blue from oxygen deprivation. Normally she would have turned into a squid to escape but in her panic, the black tentacled inkling couldn't seem to kickstart the transformation.

Her answer only served to infuriate Ryker even more, who shook her a few times before hurtling her to the floor. Quinn's head smacked against it with a sickly squish, and unwillingly she let a cry of pain escape her. Upon hearing it Dashiel bolted upright.

"Ryker this is going way too far," he protested, though his cries fell on deaf ears. Ryker had already picked Quinn up again and was marching towards the door.

"Go back to whatever wimpy place you came from, you little punk!" With that, he threw her out of the shop, the inkling girl hitting the asphalt hard. A few moments later the splattershot jr, splat bombs, and ink tank joined her on the ground, the door to the shop being slammed shut. Quinn scrambled to pick up her stuff, tears springing to her eyes when she noticed the long cracks in the ink tank. She hadn't even been in one turf war yet and it was already broken.

Going back into Ammo Knights with Ryker and his gang in there, however, was not an option. The tank was shoved back onto her back, the girl cringing as the faint sounds of black ink trickling out onto the ground echoed in the air. Picking up her gun, Quinn stumbled off into the now dark plaza, the night sky swallowing her up. She had no idea where she was going, and no place to stay, but right now all that mattered was finding a place where the girl could sit and rest for a moment or two.

Quinn's battered body, however, was slowly giving up on her. She stumbled several times in her walk before finally falling to the ground in what she thought was one of the back alleys. Her vision was growing darker, and as she tried - and failed - to get up, it went totally black.

* * *

 **Reviews, follows, and favorites are appreciated**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The first thing that Quinn registered upon waking up was that she was warm. Now, this was an odd and strange thing since the temperatures outside had to have been pretty chilly. Next to register was the apparent softness of her surroundings. Where on earth was she? The ground certainly could not be this comfortable. Dark gray eyes slid open, vision hazy as they adjusted to the light.

She was in what appeared to be a small bedroom, painted a pale blue and decorated with light orange and yellow accents. It wasn't exactly Quinn's color scheme - greens and browns were more her speed - but complaining about that wasn't really high on the girl's priority list. She was in a shelter, though whose home she was in was a mystery to the girl. Someone had to have brought her here, and judging from the bandages covering parts of her limbs they had taken care of her wounds.

"Wha…" Quinn trailed off in bewilderment, not sure how to react.

"Oh good, you're finally up."

Quinn twisted around to face the door, spying a blue tentacled inkling boy leaning against the door frame. A replica of armor jackets, pants, and a pair of red sea slugs covered his body, while a gas mask hid his face from the world. The only thing that could be seen underneath it were his blue eyes, which were focused on Quinn.

"I was starting to get worried you were hurt worse than I thought and that I'd have to take you to the hospital," he continued, walking into the room and sitting down on a chair that Quinn had missed in her first initial look around. "So, how are you feeling?"

"Um…" Quinn blinked a few times. "I...I guess I'm doing okay. But who are you, and where am I? I thought I passed out in a back alley."

"I'm Langston, and yes, you did pass out in a back alley," Langston replied with a slight shrug "I stumbled across you and didn't want to just leave you there so I took you to my secondary apartment."

"Secondary apartment?" Quinn's mouth dropped open in shock. Just how rich was this guy for him to be able to afford not one but two apartments? Was he some kind of millionaire or something?

"Yeah, I used to live here but then I moved in with some friends since I got too lonely by myself," Langston chuckled in response to her stunned expression. "I still kept the lease up in case I needed a place to go to get away, and I figured you wouldn't want to wake up in a house full of messy boys. They aren't neat like me, unfortunately."

"Um...yeah, I probably would have been a bit surprised to say the least…" She trailed off awkwardly as the older teen continued to laugh for a few minutes until he finally managed to calm his chuckles.

"So what even happened to put you in that condition? You looked like you had gotten mugged, um…"

"Quinn," she replied quickly, frowning at the memory of last night. "I ran into some jerk named Ryker or something like that when I was in Ammo Knights the other night. He and his goons roughed me up pretty good before he strangled me and literally threw me out of the shop."

"...oh geez...that's not good…" Langston's eyes widened. "That's really not good…"

"Yeah, I know it's not good. I mean, he caused me to pass out," Quinn said indignantly.

"No, it goes beyond that." Langston stood up and walked over to the window looking out over the city. "Ryker's got a pretty big reputation here in the city. Most people know him as 'Ryker the Terrible'."

"Ryker the Terrible?"

"Yep. He's got the shortest fuse out of anyone in this city. Sometimes it seems like just breathing sets him off and when he's in one of his moods there's no telling what he'll do. He's even attacked his own teammates during ink battles in the past just because they make what he considers a bad play. It's frightening how much anger he has."

Quinn flinched, recalling how easily the teenager had gone from just cruel words and firing ink from his gun to physically assaulting her. It was a terrifying memory, yet at the same time it ignited a flare of anger deep within her. Right now, despite her fear, the girl wanted nothing more than to hunt Ryker down on the battlefield and teach him a lesson.

"Normally he hangs out with a group of his buddies. Usually, they go along with his taunting provided it doesn't cause lasting physical harm," Langston continued, studying the girl before him. "Liam can be just as cruel as Ryker if he gets pushed far enough, Zane's more of a tactician than a fighter, and then Dash is usually the nicest out of the four. I'm surprised he didn't try to stop them last night."

"One of them did," Quinn mumbled, thinking back to the light blue inkling that had voiced his displeasure over her treatment.

"That was probably him then. Overall he's not a bad guy, one of my friends actually. You're safe around him. The others though...I'd steer clear if I were you. Make no mistake, if Ryker runs into you again he's not going to treat you well. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if he tries to hunt you down. From what it sounds like you stood up for yourself, and he sees that as a challenge."

"Great…" Quinn sighed and got out of the bed, beginning to pace back and forth by the wall. "I've been in the city for less than forty-eight hours, gotten attacked by a crazed lunatic and his goons, been hurt, and still haven't found a place to stay or buy food or anything like that."

"You don't have a place to stay?" Langston sounded surprised. Quinn shook her head in response.

"I was going to look for a hotel after going to Ammo Knights and then stay there until I could find a permanent residence."

"Hm…" Her companion thought for a minute before rummaging around in one of his pockets and pulling out a key. "Why don't you stay here for the time being? Like I said, I don't live here, I just keep the rent up in case I ever need it. Seems like it'd be a shame for a perfectly good apartment to stay empty, and you need a place to stay anyway."

"Um…" The black tentacled inkling blinked a few times before looking at him suspiciously. "And what do you get out of this exactly? I appreciate you trying to be helpful but why go to such lengths for a girl you don't know?"

"Guess it does seem strange, doesn't it?" Langston's tone grew wistful as he spoke, his gaze returning to the window. "When I first came to this city an older inkling named Kai took me in. He was one of the freshest inklings this side of the plaza, and he hung out with a complete rookie like me. I don't know what prompted it but he took me under his wing and taught me everything I know about ink battles. I just want to help someone out similar to how he helped me, that's all. I'm not going to do anything harmful or inappropriate to you, if that's what you're worried about."

"...you promise?"

"Cross my hearts or hope to be splatted," Langston replied with a slight grin, making an x-shaped motion over his chest. Quinn continued to look at him suspiciously. It was rather odd for him to be so friendly to a stranger. But his intentions seemed sincere, and if he had any ulterior motive the boy hid it well. If Langston truly had no intention to harm her then she would be a fool for turning him down, yet at the same time it was foolish and not exactly safe to trust someone that she had known for so little time.

Given that she had walked to Inkopolis instead of safely waiting for the train, however, it couldn't really be said that Quinn was one for doing things the safe way. And all of Langston's actions thus far seemed to prove he meant her no harm. After all, when the girl had been unconscious she was helpless. It would have been easy to steal her belongings, kill her, or do other such unsavory crimes.

"Deal." Langston smiled at her response and dropped the key into her hand. "Do I have to pay you rent or anything?"

"Nope, like I said even though I own the apartment at the moment I don't live here," he said as he walked towards the door. "Maybe later if you want to live here full time but not at the moment. I'll let you get settled in. I left my contact information on the table so feel free to call if you need help with anything."

"Um...okay? Thank you!" Quinn called after him as he walked out the door, shutting it behind him. The girl was left alone in the apartment, and after a few minutes, climbed out of the bed to explore her abode. It was a well furnished place, with a kitchen, living room, two bedrooms, and a bathroom. Judging from how large it was, the rent had to be pretty expensive. Just how rich was her mysterious benefactor to be able to afford not only this place but also another apartment as well?

Perhaps it was best not to worry about that right now. The important thing was that Quinn now had a place to stay in the city. Scarcely had that thought occurred to her did the teenager realize she had no idea where exactly in Inkopolis she was. Come to think of it, she had no idea where anything in Inkopolis was located.

"Well, guess I better start exploring this place," she said to herself as she changed into her turf war gear and picked up her gun and ink tank from where they were lying on the table. It appeared that Langston had fixed the damage they had incurred the night before, yet another thing she owed him for. Slinging them over her shoulder, the inkling darted out of the apartment, heading for the great outdoors.

Several inklings gave her strange looks before whispering among themselves as she walked down the street. Quinn paid them no mind, instead focusing on Inkopolis Tower. It loomed into the sky right in front of her, the base hidden by several buildings. No doubt she was close to the plaza, and with an excited grin the girl headed towards it. Perhaps exploring could wait until later. After all, there was an opportunity for her to do turf wars!

Quinn broke into a run in her excitement, a childish look of glee adorning her face. Finally, her very first turf war! What kind of opponents would she face? Would they be strong? Newcomers like herself, or seasoned veterans? What stage would it be on? These questions, and more, swirled through her head.

Soon the spaces between the buildings began to widen, and then suddenly receded altogether to open up into the plaza. Quinn continued to charge towards the tower, only to crash into someone.

"Oof!"

"Ow!"

A pair of twin thuds echoed in the air as Quinn and whoever she had run into fell to the ground. Groaning, the black tentacled inkling shook her head a few times to clear it.

"Ugh...sorry about tha…oh cod…" Catching a glimpse of who she had run into, the girl trailed off. Sitting on the ground in front of her, a stunned look on his face, was the light blue inkling from Ammo Knights, one of the ones that Ryker had hung out with. What was his name? Quinn wasn't sure, but if he was there then the other three couldn't be too far behind. And if they were there then surely they'd torment her again, much as they had done the night before. That was the last thing Quinn wanted, and fearfully she scrambled to her feet before taking off across the plaza.

"Wait!" Behind her she could hear the boy scramble to his feet and chase after her, but she didn't stop running. Frantically she looked around for a place to hide, only to notice a sewer grate to the right of the plaza. Was it ideal? No, of course not. What sane inkling would want to hide in the sewers of all places? It probably reeked of rotten ink and was infested with rats and bugs. Not exactly a fun place to hang out, but right now it was her only option.

"I'm going to regret this later," Quinn muttered before taking a deep breath and diving towards the grate. The teenager shifted into a squid in midair, slipping through the flimsy barrier and into the sewers below. The smell hit her like a ton of bricks, but surprisingly enough the place appeared to be clean. The area was semi-lit with small lamps that did little to purge the darkness from the area. Dirty water coursed along concrete channels, with narrow pathways raised up above the deadly fluid. Quinn wasted no time running into the darkness, not sure if her pursuer would follow her.

It reeked to high heaven, the smell making the young girl cough and gag as she ran. Her escape was not as stealthy as she would have liked, for if he was chasing after her the boy would most certainly hear all the noise she was making. Realizing this, Quinn clamped a hand over her mouth in an effort to stifle the noise, slowing to a stop to try and listen for any sounds of pursuit. Nothing, save for her somewhat labored breathing, echoed in the concrete cave. It appeared that she had made her escape.

"Phew...that was way too close for comfort," she mumbled to herself before looking around with a sigh. "Now I just need to figure out how to get out of here. There's got to be a manhole somewhere...at least, I think so anyway..."

That, in fact, was Quinn's biggest mistake. Although she had managed to escape the boy, down in the sewers she had no way of knowing where exactly in the city she was. It was especially unfortunate that the sewers underlying the plaza area only had a few manholes that led to the surface, and none of them were near her. But the teenager had no way of knowing that as she resumed trekking through the sewers, albeit at a much steadier pace than before.

"Where on earth am I?" Quinn wondered aloud about fifteen minutes later, not having come across a manhole or any sign of life so far. It was rather concerning, really. What would happen if she got stuck down here forever? Would anyone find her body? How would her mother and brother cope with losing another loved one after her father's death so many years ago? What would Langston think when the girl he had helped mysteriously disappeared? And Yusei, Flora, and Fabio, they seemed nice and friendly? Would they ever wonder what had happened to her?

As those questions swirled through her head, Quinn rounded the corner only to bump into someone. Paling the girl jumped backwards, peering into the darkness.

"Who's there?"

"Ugh...lousy ten armed idiots can't even watch where they're goi-wait a minute! It's you!" The figure stormed out of the darkness and thrust an accusatory finger in Quinn's face. "You're the inkling that attacked me out by that old hillbilly town!"

With that, the octoling tackled Quinn, pinning her to the ground.

"You know how much trouble I got into because of you?" The octoling, whom Quinn dimly recalled was named Octavia, demanded in an outraged tone. "You're dead meat once I drag you back to the army you inkling scum!"

"Uh, yeah, no thanks!" Quinn shoved the girl off of her and scrambled to her feet, taking off into the darkness once more. Octavia snarled and began chasing after her, angry curses echoing in the air. It would appear that the octoling was just the tiniest bit upset over the result of their previous encounter. Given her threats, getting caught probably would end up with Quinn dying at some point, something the girl wasn't too keen on.

Well, at the very least this confirmed that what happened on the way to Inkopolis wasn't just some fever dream. Octolings really were still alive, though at the moment Quinn would have much preferred them to be extinct. Octavia was catching up to her, the cursing and angry threats growing louder as the soldier started gaining ground.

"Got you!"

"No you don't!" Octavia tried to tackle Quinn but the girl twisted out of the way at the last moment. Her pursuer fell to the ground with a dull thump, instantly springing back to her feet and charging down the tunnel. Quinn didn't waste the opportunity and continued to flee, not trusting her ability to fight a highly trained soldier in such narrow confinements. But at the same time she could not keep on running forever. Sooner or later she would have to stop and take a break. The question was would the black tentacled inkling lose the octoling before that had to happen.

Suddenly a slight glimmer of light caught the girl's attention, dark eyes squinting to try and make out the details in the darkness. There, up ahead, where the path appeared to split, was a small cone of light flooding into the tunnel. That could only mean one thing: there was a manhole. As crazy as Octavia appeared to be, chasing Quinn around under Inkopolis, surely she'd not dare to go into the city itself. That would be foolish beyond measure.

Her mind made up, the inkling made a beeline for the light, not daring to look behind her for fear it would cause her to trip and lose her balance. If she fell here there would be no second chances, Octavia would surely get her. That'd be bad news for sure.

Fortunately, that didn't happen, the inkling miraculously managing to keep her footing during her run. Light trickled down into the darkness as the teenager neared the manhole, providing a bit more illumination to the area. It was warm and inviting, a promise of fresh air and perhaps a chance of escape. There was no hesitation in Quinn's actions as she shifted into a squid and jumped through the grates. Perhaps she'd emerge in a dangerous part of the city, but that was much preferable to being turned into calamari by the enraged octoling pursuing her.

Behind her, Octavia reluctantly came to a halt, snarling furiously.

"I'll get you one of these days, inkling scum!" With that last threat, the soldier turned on her heel and stalked off. Up on the surface, Quinn let out a sigh.

"Well, at least she gave up on chasing me…"

"Who gave up on chasing ye, lassie?"

"Gah!" At the creaky, unfamiliar voice Quinn whipped around, hand flying for her gun. Standing there was an old man, hunched over almost double at the waist. Eyeballs bulged out of his head to the point where they almost covered up the markings surrounding them, and a wizened old beard covered the lower half of his face. His tan skin was all wrinkled and sagging off his bones, a few scars marking it here and there. A military uniform, all tattered save for the smart blue cap perched on his head covered his body, and to complete the ensemble he was clutching an old-fashioned bamboozler like a cane.

"W-who are you?" Quinn skittered backward, raising her gun. "Stay back, I'm warning you!"

"Easy bucko," the man replied, a somewhat large grin appearing on his face. "I am Cap'n Cuttlefish, leader of the esteemed Squidbeak Splatoon! What be your name, lassie?"

"Quinn…" She trailed off, eyeing him suspiciously. At the moment Cuttlefish appeared to be nothing more than a crazed loon, certainly not a war hero. Besides, according to all the history books the Squidbeak Splatoon had been disbanded after the Great Turf War anyway. Even if he truly was the captain of that heroic group, it was nothing more than a title now.

Sighing, Quinn turned her attention to surveying her current surroundings. It was a rocky place, scraggly plants and grizzled grass sprouting up from cliffs and parched soil. Tall spires loomed out of a deep valley that ripped through the ground, their bases hidden by thick blackness. The ravine wound its way towards the distance, its true length unable to be perceived. Nearby was a ramshackle and rundown hut if it was even that at this point. A decrepit shelter at best, and probably the place Cuttlefish lived.

"What even is this place?" The black tentacled inkling turned to look at Cuttlefish. "Where are we?"

"This here be Octo Valley, bucko." His voice was somber as he spoke. "Over a hundred years ago we soundly defeated the octarian menace and forced them to retreat into that chasm over there. I've been keeping watch over it ever since to make sure they don't try anything."

"Octarians?"

"Aye." Cuttlefish nodded gravely.

"So then they do exist...I really did run into them back at Splashtown and in the sewers just now," Quinn mumbled to herself. "But wait, that means Yusei was wrong...is he just misinformed or something?"

"Huh? What're you rambling on about Quinn?"

"I walked to Inkopolis from Splashtown, my home," she replied, waving a bit dismissively. "It's a long story, the details of why I walked aren't important. But on the tracks, I encountered a group of octolings. I don't know why they were out there-"

"You encountered a group of octolings? Tell me everything bucko, immediately!" Cuttlefish instantly yanked Quinn into his shack and sat her down in a chair before starting to pace back and forth in front of her. "I knew those eight-tentacled slimeballs would try to do something sooner or later. Probably looking for more zapfish."

"Literally all I know is that they were doing some sort of scouting mission," the teenager replied with a rather awkward look on her face. "One of them snuck up on me but I caught sight of her. We fought and I managed to wrestle her gun away from her but it didn't do much so I ended up using brute force to knock her out. After that, I hid so the other octolings wouldn't find me, and didn't come out until they left."

"Hm...you say you won a fight with one of them and escaped?" When Quinn nodded Cuttlefish quit his pacing, turning to look at her. "How much experience do you have in fights, bucko?"

"None, I haven't even done a turf war yet," Quinn replied, running a hand over her splattershot jr. "Got kind of sidetracked by something…"

"Well, Quinn, you seem like you know your way around a battlefield regardless," Cuttlefish began rooting around in a closet before pulling out a weird looking suit and some sort of black and neon yellow gun. "How'd you like to join the Squidbeak Splatoon?"

"Um…" Quinn frowned, looking at him suspiciously. "...why exactly should I do that? I mean, yeah, the octarians are messing around. But they haven't really done anything yet."

"That's where you're wrong lassie." Cuttlefish shook his head and began pacing again, a grave look on his face. "They have done something. What do you know about the zapfish theft?"

"Zapfish theft?" Quinn looked and sounded extremely confused. The zapfish had been stolen? Since when? She hadn't heard anything about that during her travels, and something like that would have been big news and spread like wildfire. But yet nothing, not even a rumor of a theft, had reached her.

"Aye, the zapfish, including the Great Zapfish, have been stolen, and I know those rotten octarians did it." Cuttlefish scowled, glaring out the window at the valley. "I'm sure they took them to try and cripple inkling society so they can attack and take the land for themselves. No one believes me when I say that, though. They all think I'm a senile old fool!"

"But you!" Quinn yelped as Cuttlefish suddenly thrust a finger in her face right in the middle of his monologue. "You have that look in your eyes that I've been searching for! I have no doubt you'd be a great soldier! So what do you say, Quinn? Will you join us?"

This was a rather sudden proposition, and Quinn quite honestly was taken aback by the old inkling's bluntness. Naturally, the girl was inclined to refuse his offer, but something in her hesitated. What would happen if she refused to help, and then the octarians attacked? Would she die? What about her family? It was clear that the octarians were interested in Splashtown for some reason. If they attacked, everyone there would be defenseless, including her mother and Harley. The thought of her family getting hurt, more than anything else, was what influenced her decision.

"I'll do it," the black tentacled inkling said before reaching out to grab the suit and gun. "What's my first assignment?"

"You're sure?" Cuttlefish blinked in surprise.

"No, I'm not, but this isn't something I can just ignore."

"Woo-hoo! Finally, another one! Hooray!" Cuttlefish broke out in a raucous celebration, causing Quinn to roll her eyes and sigh. For some reason, the old man appeared to be a bit too excited about the prospect of Quinn working with him.

"Uh…this isn't that big of a deal...wait, what do you mean by another one?" In her frustrated confusion, the full meaning of Cuttlefish's words had taken some time to fully register. When they did, however, they left the girl confused. Other ones? Were there more inklings that had gotten roped into working with the former Squidbeak leader?

"You heard me, bucko," Cuttlefish replied, gesturing to where three other hero suits were hanging on the walls. They were identical to her own, save for being blue instead of yellow. "You're not the first one I've recruited. There is, in fact, five others. Agents 1 and 2 are members of the primary squadron, though they usually can't go on missions. The other three form up the recon squadron. They scout areas, make notes, and provide support for agents in the field as needed."

"Enough talk though!" The black tentacled inkling jumped at her new leader's sudden shout. "Get changed and get out there Agent 3! Time's a wasting and we have zapfish to save!"

"Ah...yes sir." She scrambled behind a partition and quickly pulled on her hero suit before running out the door. "I'll get right on it!"

* * *

 **Another chapter is done. As always, reviews, follows, and favorites are appreciated. And since I'm out of college for the next few months I'll be able to write more frequently now too.**

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 **BlueTornado3275: Thanks for the kind words! I'm glad you think the story is interesting. Hopefully you like this latest chapter too.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

"What do you mean some of the zapfish were stolen?" DJ Octavio, supreme leader of the octarian race, did not sound that happy with the two octolings reporting back to them. The small group was currently in his personal chambers, a somewhat ornate and fancier place than the normally spartan-like dwellings of the evolved cephalopods. There were actually padded chairs for residents to sit in and throw rugs on the floor rather than the plain and uncomfortable wooden benches and cold earth that adorned a normal citizen's house.

Right now there were just the four of them - Octavio, Octavia, Odette, and little three year old Oda, the king's daughter. She was sitting on the floor scribbling pictures, a happy smile on her face and not a care in the world nagging away at her mind. All the rest of the army, even the high ranking generals, were elsewhere.

"We received reports from one of the westernmost outposts of an attack," Odette replied, looking down at the ground. "When Octavia and I arrived there appeared to have been a fight, and the zapfish's cage had been broken open. We searched but couldn't find it or whoever broke in."

"I'm telling you it had to be that inkling I ran into near that backwater inkling settlement," Octavia piped up indignantly.

"You're spouting nonsense with that," Odette retorted dismissively. "Black tentacled inklings do not exist, and such a young and foolish inkling shouldn't be able to defeat a well-trained soldier such as yourself."

"But-"

"Enough bickering," Octavio ordered, causing the two to stop their small fight. "How many soldiers did we lose?"

"Ah, that's the funny thing…" Odette shifted nervously. "No one was killed as far as we can tell. There's a few that are still missing, but the vast majority of them were knocked out."

"...odd...I didn't take the inklings to be one to show any mercy...not after the Great Turf War…"

"Bah, it probably wasn't an inkling. Maybe a rogue octoling from the labs," Octavia muttered under her breath.

"What did you say?"

"My apologies, Lord Octavio," Octavia hastily muttered. "I was wondering if maybe it wasn't an inkling but perhaps a traitor? You do know we had a few of them a couple of years ago. There could always be more."

"Perhaps, but for now we shall assume it is an inkling. No doubt Cuttlefish is up to his old tricks again." Octavio sighed and shook his head, a thoughtful frown on his face. "You two are dismissed. Odette, tell Orion to report to me. If these thefts keep up we will send out the Octoweapons."

"Yes, sir!" The two saluted and left. Octavio sighed and looked over at Oda, who was still happily scribbling away on her drawings.

"We need the zapfish, otherwise my people will die out…" Octavio mumbled to himself, a pained look on his face. "I swear I won't let Octopolis or the octarians crumble away into nothingness. I won't let the selfishness of the inklings prevent me from saving my citizens from this dark existence. If it's a fight that Cuttlefish wants, then it will be a fight that he will get...and lose."

"Gah!"

A shout rang out through the surface of Octo Valley, followed by a trill of fishy laughter. It was Quinn, back from her first mission, zapfish in tow. Much to the girl's chagrin, it was a playful little fellow that decided that nothing would be more hilarious in all the world than to occasionally shock his rescuer. Every time the little yellow fish shocked her it let out a series of high pitched giggles. Quinn was less than amused.

"Stop shocking me…" Quinn pleaded, causing the zapfish to grin and shock her again. The girl groaned and carefully held the fish away from her, hoping that it wouldn't zap her again.

"Hey, bucko! Over here!" Cuttlefish shouted, jumping up and down in front of his shack. Quinn rolled her eyes but trekked on over to the old man, zapfish in tow.

"Agent 3 reporting in, sir-ah!" Quinn trailed off into a screech as the zapfish shocked her one last time before squirming out of her grip and hopping over to the old man. "I told you not to do that!"

"Nice to see this one's still full of life, right bucko?" Cuttlefish grinned while the zapfish giggled. "Great work! You've got the makings of a fine agent."

"Thanks…" Quinn muttered, glaring at the zapfish. "Do you have any other missions for me or should I go back to Inkopolis?"

"You're released from duty for the day. I put my number in that phone doohickey that you young'uns are fascinated with these days so I can get in touch with you. I'll call when I've got another mission."

Saying this, Cuttlefish tossed Quinn's phone to her, the girl barely catching it before it could hit her face. Sighing to herself and mumbling a few cross words under her breath the girl quickly got changed into her normal attire. With one last glare at the zapfish, the black tentacled inkling bid Cuttlefish adieu before hopping down into the sewers and heading back for Inkopolis.

It was a long trek, and Quinn made a mental note to ask whether there was a more direct route to and from the plaza the next time she ran into the Cap'n. Perhaps an hour passed before a faint pinprick of light gleamed in the distance, and with a grin she sprinted over to it. One mini super jump later and she was standing in the plaza right at the entrance to an alley. Judd's napping spot was nearby, but that was all the girl managed to catch a glimpse of before hands reached out to yank her back into the darkness.

"Relax, Quinn, it's just me," Yusei hissed. Quinn, who had opened her mouth to scream, let out a sigh of relief before glaring at the midnight blue inkling.

"You scared me," she grumbled, causing the boy to shrug.

"Sorry," he whispered in response. "So, what're you doing hanging around in the sewers? I thought I told you to avoid them. There's no telling what sort of danger's down in there."

"Somebody that beat me up yesterday was chasing me, and I ducked down there to escape because I figured that whatever was down there couldn't be scarier than him." She chose her words carefully. On one hand, it was not a total lie, that was how Quinn had gotten into the sewers originally. On the other hand, though, she had no plans on telling Yusei about her new job fighting the octarians. Chances were the teenager wouldn't even believe her, and on the off chance that he did well, he'd probably think she was a fool.

"Let me guess, Ryker's at it again," Yusei replied with a sigh. "One of these days he's going to pick a fight with the wrong person and be in over his head."

"Oh, he already has," Quinn grumbled, cracking her knuckles. "I'm going to beat him."

"Well, you can try, no guarantee it'll happen though. I'd recommend doing a lot of ink battles, you'll need the fighting experience." The older teenager glanced around before looking over at the tower. "In fact, why don't you go do some now? Blackbelly Skatepark and Kelp Dome are both on the rotation right now, and they're pretty basic stages so they're great for beginners to get their feet wet."

"If that'll help me beat him, then I'll definitely want to do that," Quinn grinned, a fire lighting up in her eyes. "Thanks for the tip Yusei."

"No problem. You go have fun, and good luck," Yusei replied with a wave, watching as Quinn ran off towards the tower. Once she was out of sight, the midnight blue inkling adopted a more serious look on his face and slipped through the grate and into the sewers. His actions went unnoticed by the black tentacled girl, though, her mind preoccupied with formulating a plan to beat Ryker.

Inkopolis Tower loomed high into the sky, Quinn gawking a bit at the building as she entered. According to Cuttlefish, the Great Zapfish was supposed to be coiled around the very top, but the massive fish was now absent. Perhaps a more studious agent would have looked into news articles and information about the great beast's disappearance, but that wasn't Quinn's passion, nor was it her forte.

After a last cursory look, the young teen darted into the tower and hurried over to one of the registration kiosks. According to the display on the screen Kelp Dome already had two full teams, but there were two slots in Blackbelly Skatepark available. Without hesitation, Quinn entered her name, level, and weapon information.

"Registration complete," a mechanical voice announced after a moment. "Please proceed to the inkrail."

A panel slid out from the wall, revealing a decent sized gray sphere bolted to the floor next to a skinny tunnel leading down into the earth. Quinn frowned, poking it a few times with her foot, unsure of what to do.

"I think you have to shoot it to activate it," a voice from behind said. "At least, that's how I think these work…"

Quinn turned around to see another inkling girl behind her, also wearing beginner gear and clutching a splattershot jr in her hands. She had pale skin and short tentacles pulled back in a rather boyish hairstyle, bangs swept across her forehead. Green eyes filled with joy and mirth glittered mischievously as the teenager sized Quinn up.

"Wow, you have black tentacles! Not every day you see those," she continued, poking one of them curiously. "Are they natural or did you dye them?"

"They're natural…" Quinn mumbled awkwardly.

"Really? That's so cool!" The girl laughed, twirling her gun absentmindedly. "I'm Mia, what's your name?"

"Quinn."

"Nice to meet you! So, you heading to Blackbelly for a turf war, too?" Mia walked over to the inkrail and shot it a few times, causing a rope of purple ink to shoot out from the sphere and into the dark tunnel.

"Yep," Quinn replied, a bit distracted by the activation of the inkrail. Being from a country town the black tentacled inkling hadn't seen anything like it before. The technology was simply fascinating.

"Sweet, me too. Guess I'll see you there." With that, Mia shifted into a squid and hopped into the inkrail, swimming on down it. Quinn watched her go with a shrug before shifting her tentacle colors to a purple hue and mimicking her movements. Entering the inkrail felt strange like she was being squeezed into a very narrow straw, but soon the uncomfortable sensation passed and she was swimming through the darkness. It was, to say the least, a bit nerve-wracking being held up only by a narrow rope of ink. Needless to say, Quinn swam as fast as she could.

Soon she emerged from the darkness, popping out into a small waiting area overlooking the battlefield. Seven other inklings milled about the area, impatiently waiting for enough teenagers to gather.

"Purrfect...looks like everyone's here…" Judd meowed from his station as Quinn walked over to join the group, the purple fading from her tentacles as her natural coloring reasserted itself. The black tentacled inkling paled, realizing she recognized some of them there. Two of them were strangers, and yes there was Mia as well, but they were not who concerned the girl. Standing there in a loose clump was Ryker and his gang, weapons in hand and the looks of those waiting to kill on their faces. Unfortunately, they also recognized the latest arrival

"You!" Ryker roared as he stomped over to stand in front of her. Quinn groaned, the look on her face akin to one that adorned the features of someone who had been forced to eat something very unpleasant. She was not happy to see the boy at all and tried to suppress the icy trickle of fear that crawled down her spine.

"Nice to see you've expanded your vocabulary," she muttered dryly. "So, who is on who's team?"

"Meow...Quinn, Mia, Dashiell, and Zane are on the purrple team...Ryker, Liam, John, and Andrew are on the yellow team," Judd replied lazily. "Good luck."

Ryker stomped off in disgust, Liam right behind him, while the two random inklings exchanged nervous glances before following after them. Quinn winced in sympathy, feeling a bit sorry that they'd have to deal with the hot-headed Ryker. She then glanced uneasily over at Zane and Dashiell, unsure if they were going to attack her again. Mia, oblivious to the trouble, ran off towards their spawn point, and Zane, with a roll of his eyes and a heavy sigh, walked after her.

"Look, I know it probably won't make up for earlier, but I'm sorry about what happened in Ammo Knights," Dash mumbled with a sigh, glancing down at the ground in shame. "I shouldn't have let things get out of hand like they did…"

"...I guess it's okay," the inkling said, sounding a bit awkward as the two began walking towards the spawn point. Their tentacles shifted to match the purple hue of the other already there. "...Zane isn't going to attack me is he?"

Dash looked over at Zane, who sighed again but nodded his head in affirmation. This caused the normally light blue inkling to grin.

"He's on board."

"So, uh, anyone know any tricks for this place?" Mia interrupted a slight hint of nervousness in her voice despite the confident expression on her face. "I'm never going to get into the House if I don't learn every stage inside and out."

"We don't want Ryker or Liam to get the high ground, otherwise they will easily overwhelm us," Zane replied after a moment, adjusting something on his neo luna blaster. "Keep them off the tower in the center especially. Ryker has a hydra splatling while Liam has an e-liter 3k scope. They'll be able to reach almost the entire stage from that point. Use the side alleys to flank them, otherwise, they'll get you. Don't forget your bombs and your specials, they're your best chance at staying alive against them."

"Got it," Mia smirked.

"Be careful," Dash warned. "Just because you two are beginners doesn't mean they're going to go easy on you."

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Mia retorted, twirling her gun.

"I would…" Quinn mumbled weakly.

"Match starting in three...two...one...go!"

As soon as the automated voice finished the countdown, a loud buzzer resounded in the air and a timer began to count down from three minutes. The purple team ran off their spawn point, firing ink left and right. Dash and Zane headed for the center tower, hoping to get there before Ryker and Liam could claim it for themselves. With a loud whoop, Mia chased after them, no doubt looking forward to getting into a firefight. Quinn was left in the dust back at the base and, with a shrug, she carefully began to coat the surrounding area with purple ink. While the teenager normally enjoyed combat - that was, in fact, one of the things she liked best about her missions for Cuttlefish - she didn't exactly relish the thought of going up against Ryker. No doubt the older teen would be gunning for her head, so to speak.

Soon purple covered the ground, and the young teenager took a moment to survey her handiwork with a satisfied grin. Suddenly a tiny purple squid ghost flew past her, sinking into the respawn pad. Moments later Mia emerged, shaking her head.

"Man, that guy with the hydra sure is angry," she remarked before diving into the ink and swimming off towards the center again. Quinn flinched, watching her go, before glancing around. A side alley, shielded by high walls, caught her attention, and dimly the girl recalled Zane saying something about flanking the others from the side.

"Well, not like I can just stay here the entire match," she decided. "I mean, I want to get some good old fashioned payback for what he did to me in Ammo Knights anyway."

A determined look on her face, Quinn ran off down the pathway, spraying more ink from her gun. The weapon was a bit clumsy and cumbersome, ink splattering all over the place rather than coming out in a focused stream like she would have preferred. It was better than nothing, however. Prepping a splat bomb in advanced, Quinn ran around the corner only for something to suddenly crash into her. It hurt, a lot, a dull throbbing ache that spread through her stomach. Blackness crawled across her vision, and she just managed to catch a glimpse of Ryker sneering at her before it faded completely. Moments later it returned, and she was back at the spawn point. She had been splatted, and judging from the look she had caught on Ryker's face the hydra splatling user was responsible. Quinn scowled before rushing off the spawn point, planning on trying to sneak up on them again. Unfortunately, she had no luck. It didn't matter what she tried, be it sneaking through the back alley or rushing up the sides or zigzagging around to try and dodge their shots. They always managed to hit her.

"Oh come on!" Quinn growled as she respawned again for the ninth time. "This is impossible!"

As she fumed, the girl noticed the button on her splattershot jr that activated the bubbler. Seeing that jogged her memory. Didn't Zane say it provided temporary invincibility? Quinn was pretty sure he had. If that was the case, then she could use that to her advantage and get in close. Unfortunately, she couldn't activate it at the moment, but once her special gauge filled up, however...that was a different story.

There wasn't a moment to lose. The inkling girl darted off her spawn point with a renewed vigor, spraying ink wildly to cover up all available turf. Her efforts were mere drops in the veritable ocean of ink that blanketed the stage, but every drop counted and that was what Quinn was counting on. Time ticked away as she inked, careful to stay outside of Liam and Ryker's range. If she got splatted again there probably wouldn't be enough time for her to get her special ready again.

With a flash of light, the gauge on the side of her gun filled up completely, her tentacles starting to glow. Quinn smirked before stealthily creeping over towards the central tower, drawing as little attention to herself as she could. Dash and Zane caught the grin on her face and noted her glowing tentacles before realizing their teammate's plan. Immediately they began to taunt the boys on the tower, drawing their attention from Quinn.

The girl in question shot a path of ink up the side of the tower, before swimming up it. It was now or never, by her calculations there were only about thirty seconds left and the clock was rapidly counting down. With one last push, the girl sprang up onto the ledge, slamming a hand on the button to activate her special before pulling down on the trigger.

Her gun was blazing as the bubbler sprang to life around her. Liam and Ryker - who were standing next to a strange looking machine that Quinn ignored for the moment - were definitely surprised but, to their credit, the boys recovered quickly. They returned fire, trying to force her off the tower. The shield around her flickered at the impact of the ink bullets but Quinn pressed forward, eventually managing to splat Ryker. With a triumphant grin, she turned to take care of Liam only to see him unexpectedly burst apart in a cloud of purple ink. A quick glance behind her showed that Mia was standing there.

"Well I couldn't let you have all the fun, now could I?" The girl laughed as the bubbler surrounding her flickered and died. Quinn's quickly followed suit, evaporating as her special gauge completely emptied.

"Don't just stand there!" Zane yelled. "Get going!"

Mia nodded before beginning to fire her gun again, jumping around to increase her ink coverage. Quinn followed suit, the two girls rapidly covering up the yellow ink that the other team had spread on the ground. Suddenly, Quinn noticed a thin laser beam, and before she could call out a warning a large stream of pressurized ink slammed into Mia, splatting her. Raucous laughter burst out from behind them, and Quinn looked over her shoulder to see Ryker standing there.

"How'd you get back here so fast?" Quinn demanded.

"Here's a quick lesson, rookie," he replied with another sneer, stepping away from the now broken machine she had previously ignored. "You can super jump to more than just teammates. Now with that out of the way…"

He trailed off and took aim, causing Quinn to curse under her breath. She was trapped between Ryker and Liam on the tower, meaning she really only had one option. As the pair fired she dove off the side of the tower twisting around in the air before landing on the ground feet first. She rolled forward to absorb the momentum of the fall before sprinting forward, firing ink so that eventually she was standing in the midst of a sea of yellow. The clock was still counting down...ten...nine...eight…

"This is going to hurt…" Quinn mumbled before steeling herself.

"No way out, rookie." Ryker grinned as he charged up his hydra splatling, Liam similarly powering up his e-liter 3k scope.

"Quinn, move out of the way!" Dash yelled. Quinn glanced back at him, a crazed grin on her face that kind of scared him. In the heat of the moment, Quinn didn't look fully sane.

"Get a move on, Dashiell," she replied. "I've got everything under control."

Five seconds...four...three…two...one…

The two boys fired, and time seemed to slow. Quinn dropped a splat bomb, the ink from the two weapons hitting her just after the timer hit zero. Moments later the bomb blew up, coating a small area surrounding her with ink. She was knocked to the ground, agony consuming her before she blacked out. Moments later she woke back up at spawn, Dash and Mia standing over her.

"Are you okay?" Dash asked worriedly.

"Ha ha! That was awesome!" Mia cheered, a similarly crazy grin adorning her own face. "You're crazy you know that? But a good kind of crazy!"

"Um...thanks?" Quinn edged a bit away from Mia, who was excitedly swinging her roller around. "And yes, I'm okay."

"That was foolish of you," Zane admonished as he walked past them.

"But it worked, didn't it?" Quinn's retort shut the boy up, and with a roll of his eyes he headed off towards the middle, where Judd was working on tallying the score. The rest of the purple team headed that way as well, arriving just as the fat cat began to dance. With a flourish, the referee pulled out a purple flag and pointed it at Quinn's team. They had won by a single percentage point. Ryker stared at Quinn in shock and what was probably anger before storming off, Liam right behind him. Zane walked after them, but Dash hung back.

"Nice job you two," he said, handing them slips of paper with his number on it. "If you're ever short a man on a team, give me a call."

With a quick wave and a friendly smile, he darted off after his friends. Mia and Quinn also exchanged numbers before the former left for another match, laughing maniacally. Quinn shook her head and sighed, the adrenaline still flooding through her veins as the purple color leached out of her tentacles.

"Meow…Congratulations…" Judd said as he handed the black tentacled inkling a sack of coins. "Good job on your first battle."

Quinn eagerly accepted the money before heading back to the inkrail. Activating it she swam down the narrow ink rope, emerging in the tower a few minutes later. Wasting no time, the girl headed out the door towards the apartment building she was staying in. The events of the day, from her first mission with the Squidbeak Splatoon to her first turf war, had left her quite exhausted and she was looking forward to getting some rest.

* * *

 **And that's another chapter down. So by my calculations, this takes us to about chapter 10 ish of the original draft.**

 **And I have reviews! That honestly makes me really happy, cause I like hearing what readers have to say.**

 **BlueTornado - Hey you liked the chapter! That's awesome! I'm glad it was enjoyable, and hopefully you like the next two chapters too! And thank you so much for reviewing again, that really means a lot to me!**

 **OctoReader - Eh heh heh I'm flattered that you think so highly of my story. And you're right about the whole drama over Quinn's dead father being a bad idea. That's actually one of the things I cut out in the rewrite, now he's just "gone" - whether he's dead or missing I'll leave up to your imagination. I'm a bit leery on using other people's ocs just since I'm worried I'll goof them up and since I haven't had very good experiences with doing that in the past, so, unfortunately, I'll have to pass. If you have ideas for splatoon ocs, though, I bet you could write a great story about them.**

 **Other than that, follows, favorites, and reviews are greatly appreciated! Thanks for reading!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Ryker sighed as he sat in his chair at the front of the large circular room, watching the other members of the House filed into the chamber. There was a frustrated look on his face, an angry glare that sent the younger members of the group skittering away from him in nervousness. He already was in a bad mood due to what had happened earlier at Blackbelly. In his eyes, the upstart little punk known as Quinn shouldn't have been able to beat him. It had to be his two random teammates that dragged them down, that had to be it. Ryker refused to believe it was because he had underestimated both her and the other rookie on the purple team.

Regardless of how or why he had lost the match, the results had put him in a foul mood. And now he had to lead an official House meeting as well. The zapfish crisis, which had come about from the theft of the creatures several months ago, was rapidly developing into an even worse problem than before. Power was running out, even with all the energy reserves they had. A new power station that was hoping to harness the power of the tides was being built far to the north but progress on it was slow, and it wouldn't be completed in time before the city ran out of power. No doubt when that happened there would be riots

As much as Ryker hated House meetings, the situation demanded one to be held. They had to formulate some sort of plan to ration the power, even though there wasn't a good way to do it. Well, not a good way to do it that wouldn't anger a lot of the residents anyways. The easiest way to conserve power was to severely limit ink battles and to temporarily put a stop to the splatfests. It went without saying that a wide variety of Inkopolis' citizens would be rather upset about that.

"Hey," Zane walked over to stand next to him. "I just got a call from Yusei, he and the twins are going to be a bit late."

"Why?"

"He didn't say, just that they'd be late."

"Of course they're late," Ryker scowled. "We kind of need Flora, she's our pseudo secretary after all."

"Yeah, I know," Zane sighed. "Not much we can do about it though. You want to go ahead and get things started in case they show up sooner than expected?"

"Probably should do that." Ryker sighed before rising to his feet. "Let's get this over with."

* * *

"Got you!"

Quinn laughed as she splatted another inkling on the enemy team. The teenager was having the time of her life, doing turf wars on Moray Towers. It was a sprawling stage, full of all sorts of nooks and crannies for her to sneak a bomb in and splat an opposing fighter. She was getting quite good with those little tricks of hers thanks to all the time she had spent in Octo Valley.

Speaking of Octo Valley, the girl's secret job had been going well. So far she had recovered three zapfish and had also done numerous patrols. The girl hadn't seen any of the other agents - both Agents 1 and 2, as well as that reconnaissance squadron that Cuttlefish had mentioned earlier. It was a bit odd that none of them had reared their heads yet, but ultimately Quinn wasn't too concerned about it. She'd run into them sooner or later.

"Bombs away!" With another happy cheer the girl released another splat bomb, rolling it along the ground to get it into a tiny corner. There was a slight squeak right before the inksplosive went off, a tiny little squid ghost flying out of the puddle of ink. Quinn waved to them cheekily as they zipped off to their respawn pad. She then went back to inking turf, pausing only to activate the bubbler.

It went without saying that it was an easy victory for her team. Thanks not only to Quinn's skill with the bombs but also a very high-level girl on her team, the quartet of inklings managed to spawn camp their opponents. A clear and decisive victory, just the way the girl liked them. Judd quickly declared them the winners, distributed the money all eight fighters had earned, and then left.

Gradually the inklings left the arena, with Quinn being one of the last ones to exit via the inkrail. When she popped back out in the lobby, however, she found that one of her teammates was waiting for her. It was the one who had a really high level, almost abnormally high compared to the rest of the members who were in that particular fight. She had purple tentacles and was wearing gold hi-horses, a Zekko hoodie, and noise-canceling headphones that were currently hanging around her neck. Green eyes locked onto Quinn as soon as the black tentacled inkling emerged from the inkrail, studying her. Silently she shrugged, before walking over to the girl.

"So...you're the black tentacled inkling people have been talking about," she mused quietly.

"No, I'm a cuttlean," Quinn snarked in reply.

"...you're nothing like her at all…" her teammate mumbled under her breath, barely audible. She then cleared her throat and raised her voice. "My name's Larissa. I have a message for you."

"Fascinating. Who's the message from?"

"Ryker Eeleger."

"Oh, that jerk." Quinn rolled her eyes. "Alright, what does the pompous orange brat want now?"

"I don't know, he just said to give this to the black tentacled inkling." With that, Larissa produced an envelope from her hoodie's pocket and handed it off to Quinn. "A free piece of advice, kid. Ryker doesn't mess around. I don't know what you did to irritate him, but I'd try very hard not to make him any angrier than he already is."

"Eh, I'll consider it." The black tentacled inkling's tone made it abundantly clear that she wasn't going to follow Larissa's advice. The older inkling sighed and shook her head before vanishing into the crowds. Quinn watched her go, then turned her attention to the envelope in her hands. Why Ryker was trying to contact her was a mystery, but it most likely had to do with his defeat at Blackbelly Skatepark. In all likelihood, it was just more threats, attempts to intimidate her.

Normally, Quinn would have ignored it or tossed it in the trash, especially since it had come with Ryker. Junk mail had more value than a letter from him. But something about Larissa's tone made her pause and reconsider this course of action. Eventually, despite her better judgment, the teenager decided to take a look. Besides, it was getting to be around lunchtime, and she was rather hungry. Turf wars took an awful lot out of an inkling with all of the running and swimming around.

"Hmmm," she mused aloud as she walked out of the tower. "Should I eat out or should I go back home?"

An angry rumble from her stomach interrupted her, causing the teen to blush in embarrassment. Sheepishly Quinn laughed, glancing around to see if anyone had overheard it.

"I guess I'll go home," she decided. "I mean, there's food there and I might need a nap too."

With that decision finally made Quinn turned her feet towards the apartment building, breaking out into a light jog so she could reach it faster. A few inklings gave her curious glances and stares during the trip, but she was getting better at ignoring them. Yusei hadn't lied when he had said her tentacle color would attract a lot of attention from the rest of the city's residents. She was learning to not pay attention to them anymore.

The trip was quick, no more than fifteen minutes due to her fast pace. Soon enough she was unlocking the door to her apartment. Tossing the letter onto the table the girl made a beeline for the kitchen, ready to raid the fridge. Soon enough she had made a sandwich and was happily chowing down.

"Delicious," she declared before once again turning her attention to the letter. "Well, guess I better see what's in here."

With the tiniest bit of dread and a touch of apprehension, Quinn shoved the last bit of her lunch into her mouth. The girl then grabbed the envelope and ripped it open, pulling out the piece of paper inside.

"You think you're so cool after that fluke victory at Blackbelly, don't you rookie?" Her blood began to boil as she continued to read the letter aloud. "Well you're nothing, you hear? Nothing. And I'll prove it to you. I challenge you to a rumble in three weeks time at the Kelp Dome. Four versus one, but I'll be nice and let you multiply your score by four to make it fair. Come if you're not too much of a coward."

"...well isn't that lovely," Quinn muttered with a sigh.

This rumble posed quite the predicament. Obviously, Quinn wasn't going to just ignore Ryker's challenge - if there was one thing she wanted to do it was get him back for what he had done to her in Sheldon's shop, and the victory in Blackbelly wasn't enough. But a four versus one battle was inherently unfair, even with her score being quadrupled. She'd be massacred, having to deal with four skilled fighters in their prime. No doubt they were very familiar with the Kelp Dome, a stage that she herself had never fought on before, as well. That only added to her troubles.

"Checking it out is probably a good idea." The black tentacled inkling began to mentally make a list of what she should do before the rumble. "I'll go do some turf on it the next time it's on the rotation too. Maybe I should see if I can get some new gear and some better weapons too."

Her running monologue was halted by the sound of the doorbell ringing. Now this confused the teenager since she wasn't expecting any visitors. Frowning, the girl walked over to the entranceway and peered through the peephole. Much to her surprise Dash and Langston were standing there, both with worried expressions adorning their faces. Quickly she unlocked the door to let them in.

"Hey guys, what's up?"

"Ryker, he's -"

"Oh, him." Quinn interrupted Dash with a groan. "If this is about the rumble then I already got the message. Some chick named Larissa gave it to me."

"Larissa?" Langston looked a bit shocked but quickly covered it up.

"Didn't know Ryker knew anyone by that name," Dash added, almost in a rush. "He's been keeping secrets from me."

"It doesn't matter who gave me that message," their black tentacled friend retorted.

"Okay yeah but the rumble-"

Quinn interrupted Dash with a gale of laughter, dark and angry laughter that froze the hearts of Dash and Langston. Her chuckles, filled with both mirth and bitterness, took a few minutes to subside. When the girl finally managed to quell the storm, the grin on her face would have rivaled a shark's. Pearly white teeth were bared in a deadly focused snarl, though the target of that anger was nowhere in sight.

"Rumble? Hardly! That's not going to be a rumble, Dash," she said with a last snort of laughter. "It is going to be a massacre, and I am the prime target. I'm toast, there's no way I'll be able to win, and he knows it. Why else would he deliberately challenge me to a four on one competition?"

"Yeah...he doesn't exactly play fair…"

"No kidding," Langston muttered. "We aren't going to be able to get him to even the odds with this fight though, so dwelling on it won't matter. We've got three weeks to get you into fighting shape so you can at least pose a decent challenge to him."

"He's expecting you to epically fail," Dash added, looking at Quinn with a serious expression. "Even if it's impossible for you to win, if you do really well during the fight that's going to make him mad. He's only doing this to humiliate you."

"Yeah but how exactly am I supposed to do that with my current gear and weapon? I kind of can't buy anything yet."

"We can help with that. I mean, you're already at level three in the system, right?"

"Yeah...I fail to see how that's important." Quinn looked supremely confused.

"If you get to level four you can buy one-star gear from the shops," Langston explained. "It'd be better than what you have now."

"You can also buy some weapons from Sheldon, too," Dash added. "Not too many options but you'd be able to get a normal splattershot."

"No...I'll need the bubbler for the rumble." Privately, Quinn also did not want to go back to the horseshoe crab's shop. She wasn't at all happy with how he had treated her, not to mention letting Ryker's assault. Sheldon was someone to avoid - at the moment the black tentacled girl would have rather dealt with Moe than the snobbish weapons dealer. Given how brash and rude the clownfish was, that was saying a lot.

"Fair enough, Probably a smart idea anyway," Langston shrugged. "So, ready for some turf?"

"Yeah...actually, hold on a second." Quinn pulled out her phone and began texting. "I'll see if Mia wants to join us. We can do a squid squad."

"Sounds like fun. She's the crazy one from Blackbelly, right?"

"Yeah."

"Nice." Dash grinned and gave a thumbs up. "I like her style."

"That's not the only thing you like about her," Langston snickered under her breath, causing Dash to blush a deep red color and shove a hand over his friend's mouth.

"H-hey now! No need to discuss that," he protested, causing Quinn to laugh. Her phone chimed softly, and dark gray eyes glanced down to see that Mia had responded. As expected, the purple tentacled inkling was eager to hang out with her friend.

"She'll meet us at the tower. We'll be there in time for the next stage rotation."

"Great let's go!" Dash darted out of the apartment, Quinn hot on his heels. Langston watched them go before sighing and shaking his head.

"Well they're eager," he muttered, taking a more leisurely exit. "Why, she even forgot to lock her apartment."

Sighing again, the older teenager pulled out his key and locked the door before heading down the hallway. He'd have to catch up to his friends outside.

* * *

Ten minutes later the trio was in the plaza, Quinn and Dash a bit out of breath due to having sprinted the whole way there. Their masked companion was in better shape, given that he had elected to take a more casual walk to their final destination. The square was busy as always, inklings, jellyfish, anemones, and urchins going about their business. A large crowd, in particular, was over by the Squid Sisters' studio, trying to catch a glimpse of their idols. Things were business as usual in the city, despite the new restrictions on ink battles designed to conserve power.

"Where's Mia?" Quinn asked, looking around.

"Gotcha!" Someone leapt onto the black tentacled girl's back, causing her to let out a slight squeal of fright. Dash let out a slight bark of laughter and the scene, matched by the giggles coming from Quinn's attacker. Underneath his gas mask, Langston allowed a small smile to cross his face.

"Mia?" Quinn craned her neck awkwardly to catch sight of the purple tentacled inkling that had snuck up on her. "Don't do that! You almost gave me a heart attack!"

"Sorry, not sorry!" Mia laughed again and hopped down to the ground. "Ooh, check out what I got the other day!"

With that she brandished a carbon roller and began swinging it around, almost smacking Dash right in the face. It was then that Quinn noticed she was wearing new gear - banana yellow basic shoes, a layered long sleeve black t-shirt, and a baseball cap that was on backward.

"Isn't this so cool! I love this bad boy! It's so awesome! En garde!" Mia twirled the roller and then lightly poked Dash in the stomach. Unfortunately, she used a bit too much force and knocked him over. The light blue tentacled teen feel to the ground with a slight grunt, almost having the wind knocked out of him.

"You're level ten in the system already?" He managed to choke out.

"Uh huh! I'm good at turf wars, especially with rollers!"

"Sure…" Langston apparently didn't believe that given her apparent carelessness and hyperactiveness.

"Yes, I am! And I'll prove it, the stages go live in five minutes!"

"Well I'm hoping Saltspray Rig is one of them," Langston shrugged, checking his custom painted .52 gal deco. "That one's my favorite."

"No way," Dash retorted. "Everyone knows that Camp Triggerfish is the best!"

"You're both way wrong! Walleye Warehouse is where it's at!" Mia was the next to voice her opinion, a playful smirk on her face.

"I want Kelp Dome personally but I doubt that'll happen," Quinn shrugged. She had already called ahead to see what the stages were, and knew that none of those four arenas were on the rotation for the day.

"Why do you say that?" Mia demanded.

"Reasons."

Before she could be pressed for more information the large screen flickered to life, displaying the afternoon stage rotations. Before it would have displayed the upcoming stages that would host battles in a few hours but, due to the conservatory orders by the House of Hundred, only two sets of stages were chosen each day - one for the morning and one for the afternoon. There was no chance of any of the four's hoped-for stages would be on the docket for the day.

"Aw, phooey," Mia sulked. "Port Mackerel and Flounder Heights."

"Could be worse, could be the Pit," Langston pointed out.

"Eh, true. Last one inside is a rotten squid!" With that Mia plowed her way through the crowd, heading for the tower. Dash grinned and followed her, crashing into another inkling in his haste.

"Whoops, sorry," he said before continuing on his path. Langston and Quinn sighed and shared a knowing look before walking over to the downed inkling.

"Sorry about him," Langston apologized, carefully helping the inkling up. He moved gingerly, as if he was holding a live bomb, and with good reason.

"Yeah Dash can be pretty...wait a second, it's you!" Quinn gasped before quickly morphing her expression into a scowl.

"Yeah, it's me alright you little punk," Ryker sneered. "Just my luck to run into you again."

"She has a name you know," Langston said carefully. "It's Quinn. At least have the common courtesy to refer to her properly."

"I'll call the rookie whatever I want to call her," the orange tentacled inkling retorted, jabbing a finger accusingly in Langston's face. "And what are you doing hanging out with her, Langston?"

"He," Quinn snapped, "is my friend. I am pretty sure it is not a crime to hang out with one's friends. You always seem to do that. And speaking of them, where's the rest of your little posse?"

"Liam and Zane are busy, and Dash apparently ran off to fraternize with the enemy," Ryker hissed.

"Oh, you jealous mate?"

"As if I was jealous of an unfresh inkling like you, rookie."

"Yeah, you're definitely jealous."

"Ha, you wish."

"Why wish when it's reality?"

"Why you little-"

"Okay that's enough!" Langston put a halt to the growing argument. "My apologies again, Ryker, but Quinn and I have turf wars to get to. Please, excuse us."

Before either of them could get another word in edgewise, Langston grabbed Quinn's hand and pulled her into the lobby of Inkopolis Tower. Ryker scowled at them before stalking off into one of the back alleys and vanishing from view.

"Oh, there you two are." Dash and Mia were waiting for them over by the ink rail.

"We've reserved eight spots on Port Mackerel," Dash continued. "And then I took the liberty of asking Judd to save us a few spots on Flounder Heights for later this afternoon."

"I didn't know that was possible," Quinn mused. Dash fidgeted slightly, while behind her Langston tensed.

"Eh, normally it isn't but I did something for Judd a while back so he owed me a favor."

"Less talk of whether or not we're breaking the rules, more inking turf and splatting inklings!" Mia activated the inkrail and hopped in, vanishing from view. Dash and Langston quickly followed before Quinn could ask any more questions, causing the girl to sigh and shake her head.

"Why," she asked herself as she hopped into the inkrail, "do I get the distinct feeling like they're hiding something from me?"

* * *

 **And another chapter done. I've got kind of a busy week ahead of me - surgery tomorrow so that'll be interesting. That plus the tendinitis means I don't know how much I'll be able to write. (Trust me, that does irritate me a lot)**

 **So yeah, no clue when the next chapter will be up, just as a fair warning. Until then, though, reviews, follows, and favorites are always appreciated.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

"Whew, I'm beat," Dash groaned as he flopped down into a chair. The inklings had done their matches, most of them going quite well save for a narrow loss in the fourth or fifth round. Rumbling stomachs and achy legs lead them to take a break at one of the plaza's better-known cafes for a snack. Krill and cod kabobs were sitting on the table, the tempting aroma wafting into the air. Bottles of milk and lemon tea, octopies, and ink bomb donuts were also sitting there, just waiting to be eaten.

"Yeah, no kidding," Mia agreed, sinking down next to him. "I'm beat too."

"Hi Beat," Quinn snickered. "The name's Quinn, freshest squid this side of Inkopolis. Pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Dash glared at her for a minute while Mia burst out laughing, echoed by a quiet chuckle from Langston. His glower intensified as Quinn smirked at him, a pleased look on her face. Eventually, the light blue inkling sighed.

"I suppose I did walk into that one," he said before turning his attention to the food. Picking out a kabob the teenager snatched it, shocking the others back to their senses in a way. Unrestrained they fell upon the meal with the savageness of wolves, an enormous quantity of food disappearing down their hungry maws in a remarkably short amount of time. As they ate they made light chatter among themselves, Dash and Mia eventually getting into an impromptu eating competition while their friends looked on in amusement. Quinn, in particular, was enjoying herself immensely when all of a sudden her phone began to vibrate. Frowning, the girl stood up.

"Excuse me for a moment," she said politely, though it appeared her comment when unnoticed. Carefully she walked off to a nearby back alley to take the call, unaware that Langston had snuck away after her. Dash and Mia were too busy stuffing their faces to realize that their friends had gone.

Langston crept towards the mouth of the alley, peeking around the side of the building. In the dim light, he could see Quinn standing against the wall, her eyes scanning the surrounding area. Despite her lax posture, the girl appeared to be on high alert, as if she were expecting a threat to materialize.

"Yeah, what's up?" Her question was followed by a frown as the person on the other end of the line answered. Bronze skin turned ashen, worry creasing the skin around her eyes and on her forehead. Inadvertently her posture became straighter, stiffer, even though whoever she was speaking to couldn't see it. Langston narrowed his eyes as he observed her. Something had to be wrong, especially for her to act like that.

"Yes sir," Quinn replied, nodding once. "No, sir, I can't go now. I'm with my friends and if I sneak off now they might follow me." More garbled responses came from Quinn's mysterious caller, and Langston strained his ears trying to make out words.

"Sir, with all due respect I can't put all of our lives and our mission in danger by sneaking off." The black tentacled inkling was tense now though she managed to keep her voice soft. "I understand that this new kettle appearing is worrisome, but I need time to get away from them. If the octarians find out about my friends they might use them as hostages against me."

That was enough to set off alarm bells in Langston's head. Octarians? The teenager was under the impression that they had all died out shortly after the Great Turf War. If Quinn was speaking the truth, however, then that wasn't the case. Something like that had to be brought up in the House - no doubt their historic eight-legged foes would want to get revenge for their prior defeats.

Dimly he was aware of Quinn ending the call, and hurriedly he scrambled back to the table. He arrived just as Dash and Mia began fighting over the last octopie, causing the masked inkling to sigh. Carefully, he cut it in half and handed each inkling their respective portions, bringing an end to the squabble.

"Where'd you go?" Dash asked as he shoved his half into his mouth. Langston shrugged as nonchalantly as he could manage.

"Oh, I just thought I saw Ash and figured I'd go say hello," he replied as Quinn walked back to join the group. She had a smile on her face, but to Langston's eyes it seemed forced, and the girl had a rigid posture that she hadn't possessed mere moments ago.

"I hate to cut things short, but something came up that I really have to take care of immediately," she announced.

"Aww...but, but ink battles!" Mia protested, a saddened expression replacing her normally happy grin. "Don't you want to get to a higher level so you can get a roller like me?"

"Eh…" Quinn awkwardly shuffled about, not sure how to tell the girl that rollers weren't her style. "I guess, but this is super important."

"Phooey…" Mia sulked. "Why does important stuff always have to come up when we're having fun?"

"Aw, cheer up Mia," Dash said. "You and I can go do more ink battles."

"Okay...but Quinn's got to promise she'll hang out with us again real soon," the purple tentacled inkling insisted.

"Yes, I promise," her friend quickly agreed. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to go. Had a blast though."

Before anyone could say anything else, Quinn hurried off. Langston frowned, a mixture of suspicion and worry in his eyes. No doubt she was off to go fight the octarians, assuming that they really did exist. He was still a bit skeptical about that, but it was worth keeping an open mind on the off chance that this wasn't just a prank.

As soon as Quinn left the little gathering broke up. Mia and Dash headed off to do more turf wars, while Langston wandered off to go do some research on the Great Turf War. As soon as they were all gone, though, their friend poked her head out from one of the back alleys. Glancing both ways to make sure she wasn't being followed, the teenager stealthily crept over to the sewer grate and slipped through it. Hitting the ground running, Quinn headed straight for Octo Valley.

The trip was familiar to her, as was the dim lighting and ghastly smell. She wasn't exactly a fan of using the sewers as transportation and made a quick note to ask Cuttlefish if there was a way to perhaps shorten the journey. That would be a matter to bring up later, though, as soon the telltale light filled the tunnel, bathing the area in a warm glow. Despite the severity of the situation at hand, Quinn smiled before coming to a stop under the grate, pulling out her splattershot jr. With a press of the trigger, she shot a trail of ink up the wall. A quick shift into a squid followed, and soon she was swimming up the new path, emerging into the sunlight.

"Agent 3 reporting in, sir!" Briefly, the special agent snapped to attention, Cap'n Cuttlefish saluted her briefly in return before motioning to the girl that she should go get changed. It only took a few minutes before Quinn emerged from the shack clad in her hero shirt, her hero shot clasped in her hand.

"So...a kettle just appeared out of nowhere?"

"Aye, bucko." Cuttlefish gestured out past the shack towards the grouping of kettles nearby. Sure enough, another one had appeared, this one in a bit better shape than the others. "I've got a bad feeling about this, so be careful."

Quinn shrugged before running off into the valley, bypassing the three kettles she had already infiltrated and liberated zapfish from. The new one was even stranger up close, appearing to be made out of gold rather than rusted iron, and resting on a purple silk pillow with gold trim. This embellishment made the teen roll her eyes.

"Really, they're stealing zapfish but they have enough silk and gold to dress up an old kettle?" Her inquiry rang in the empty air. "Seems like a waste of resources to me. Oh well, let's see what you've got under the hood."

Confidently she turned into a squid and slipped into the kettle, swimming through the transportation network the Octarians used. It was horribly rudimentary, but understandable given how old the technology probably was. The air inside was stale, the clear ink starting to yellow a bit with age. A few mysterious lumps floated here and there in the thick liquid, and Quinn shuddered in disgust as one brushed up against her face. She was starting to get a bit unnerved due to how long the trip was taking. Every other one had been short, but this one seemed to be taking her deep into the valley.

Eventually, after what almost seemed to be an eternity, the ink stopped flowing, pooling in the bottom of the exit kettle. Gratefully Quinn climbed out, and the first thing she did was spray a puddle of her own in and submerge herself in it to clean off the murky ooze.

"Bleh, that was gross," she mumbled, emerging from the ink. "Where'd that kettle take me anyway?"

Looking around, the agent noticed she was alone for now. There was a small platform she was standing on, occupied only by a checkpoint, the kettle, and a launchpad. Below in the distance, too far away to jump normally to but close enough to be in the range of a super jump, was a circular battlefield. It too was unoccupied, though a large box sat in the middle of it. With a slight amount of hesitation, Quinn darted over to the launchpad and made the leap to the arena.

It was still and silent, even when she landed. No movement anywhere, which was starting to get to the girl. This was nothing like her other missions, where octarian soldiers kept patrols and attacked from left and right. Where was everyone?

"Did I take a wrong turn or something?" Quinn asked aloud as she started coating the area in black ink, trying to see if there was a hidden switch on the ground she was missing. Unbeknownst to the agent, though, was the fact that she was being watched. High above in the rafters of the stadium, Odette comfortably sat, hidden from view. The elite octoling watched as Quinn continued to search the arena, curling a hand into a fist in anger. So this was the intruder that had dared to come in and steal the zapfish. Briefly, she also wondered if this same inkling was the same one that had knocked out Octavia on their mission a few weeks back. The black ink color would explain the absence of any normal colored ink at the scene of the fight.

Odette was not worried, however. The first of the great octoweapons would be enough to stop this interloper. With a bit of glee, she watched as Quinn - who was by now visibly frustrated - approach the cube.

Down on the ground, Quinn was still unaware of her watcher, instead studying the cube. It was an odd thing to have in such a flat and barren battlefield, but perhaps the high ground would allow her to see something she otherwise would have missed. With a sigh she raised her gun, ready to ink a path up the side.

As she drew nearer, however, a cube began to shake. From high above in the ceiling a zapfish in its light bulb shaped cage floated downwards, nearing the cube. The little yellow fish caught inside looked absolutely terrified. Quinn shrugged, before raising her gun. This was turning out to be easier, albeit way more frustrating, than she originally thought it would have been.

Just as she was about to fire, a large purplish-reddish tentacle with a green x-shaped scar burst out of the cube, wrapping around the helpless zapfish. It pulled it into the device, and a few minutes later the cube stood up and shook itself a few times before intelligent eyes blinked open. Quinn paled as they stared right at her, and the great Octostomp roared before rushing forward. Leading high into the air, it began to bear down on top of the shocked girl.

"Move bucko!" Cuttlefish yelled over the radio. "Before it squishes you!"

That snapped Quinn out of her stupor, and quickly she dove into the ink she had spread on the ground. That had really saved her butt, so to speak. Behind her, with a thunderous crash that echoed in the air, the large machine smashed into the ground. Fuschia ink sprayed everywhere, a few tiny droplets getting on Quinn. With a wince, she shook them off and tried to calm her racing heart.

"What on earth is that thing?"

"That is the mighty Octostomp," Cap'n Cuttlefish replied. "One of the five great and terrible octoweapons that the octarians used to almost win the war many, many years ago."

"Joy…" Quinn trailed off with a sudden yelp as the large machine righted itself and turned around, glaring at her. It was a bit frightening, really, to see something so inorganic and unnatural displaying such a high level of intelligence. Something about it just chilled her to the core. With another roar the machine charged forward on tiny legs, leaping into the air and smashing down onto the ground. Its target just barely dodged out of the way, stumbling a bit in her haste.

Once she was a safe distance away Quinn dove into her ink, hiding from her foe. She took a few moments to breathe, trying to calm her racing heart and frazzled nerves. During this time, she also took the time to really study her foe. The beast stood three times an inkling's height, a massive cube of pure metal. Sticking out from the top, thrashing and flailing about, was the same tentacle that had pulled the Zapfish inside it earlier. It was the only thing that appeared to be natural, in a sense, and the only thing that looked as if it could be damaged.

"That's its weak point," she realized, her voice a bit garbled from speaking in the ink. "Now I just have to get up there…"

Frowning, she decided to go with the obvious option, which was to pretend that the Octostomp was little more than a glorified moving wall and ink it. The teenager rose out of her ink and darted forward, spraying more of the black substance out of her gun. Much to her surprise, it stuck and, with a grin, she swam up the side.

She had been just a tad bit too slow, though. As soon as the agent climbed onto the top of the machine, the tentacle retracted into its hole and the cube began to shake. Quinn yelped and tried to gain some purchase on the machine but quickly lost her grip and fell to the floor as the Octostomp righted itself. Thinking fast the teenager dove back into her black ink and swam a short distance away. Steeling her nerves one last time, Quinn stood up.

It took a few minutes for the machine to notice her, but once it did its eyes narrowed in hatred. Locking onto its target the beast roared again and rushed forward on tiny little legs. Internally, its target was screaming in sheer terror, seeing the great hulking beast come bearing down on her. Externally, however, Quinn displayed an air of calm, almost nonchalant boredom. She appeared to be completely unconcerned with her opponent, waiting until it had once more jumped up into the air before moving. With a single, fluid motion she dove into her ink once more and swam a short distance away before popping back up out of the dark substance. Three feet to the right the great octoweapon smashed down, stamping the ground with a square of magenta ink. Little limbs flailed about as the machine slowly struggled to return to an upright position, leaving it wide open for an attack. The agent took no chances, scurrying upwards along the pathway she had created earlier.

"Let's see how well you like this, hm?" With that Agent 3 set to work, coating the large, thrashing tentacle with her own personal color of ink. It swelled up in reaction to the foreign substance, before eventually bursting apart with a wet and messy pop. From within in the depths a large fountain of fuschia ink gushed up, catching Quinn off guard. Dropping her confident facade the teenager super jumped away in panic, landing on the ground and stumbling to a halt.

"Aw shoot...I think I made it mad…"

She watched, almost horror-struck, as the large tentacle reformed, almost as if there was a personal respawn pad inside the cube. It slipped back into the machine like a wet and slimy noodle, the mechanical cage shaking and shuddering. Slowly it stood back up before turning around to glare at the inkling with a peeved look on its face. A mighty, earth-shattering roar erupted out of the belly of the beast, literally ripping the ink from the ground. Metal armor fell off the sides of the Octostomp, exposing jagged wires.

"Yep…" Quinn laughed weakly. "It really is mad…"

Another roar split the air and the large weapon dashed forward, abandoning the clumsy aerial attack for something more straightforward. Quinn had no time to react and was squished as the large weapon tipped forward onto her. Darkness washed over her vision, accompanied by a wave of pain. All sensations mercifully vanished for a few moments, until gradually the light returned to her eyes. She was back on that tiny platform up above the battlefield, curled up on her side in the fetal position on the checkpoint.

"Agent 3?" Cuttlefish's voice crackled over the radio, laced with concern. "Bucko are you there? Speak to me!"

"Ugh…" Quinn sat up with a groan. "Yeah I'm here...that charging tackle took me by surprise."

"Be more careful, you hear me?"

"Yes, sir," the younger inkling replied, slowly climbing to her feet with a wince. She took a few moments to collect herself, calming her rattled nerves and steadying her breathing while the Octostomp prowled about below, angrily snarling to itself.

When she finally felt prepared, the teenager armed a splat bomb before heading back over to the launchpad. Tensing up, she made the jump, tossing the bomb in mid-air as a distraction. Amazingly it worked, the Octostomp abandoning its patrol before heading over to examine the bomb. Quinn took the opportunity to lay down some turf, vanishing into the ink just before the bomb blew up. Sadly it didn't damage the machine, something that the teenager was kind of hoping for. It seemed that the original assessment of the armor being impenetrable was true.

Upon losing interest in the inksplosive, the great weapon resumed stalking around the circular battlefield, hunting for prey. It didn't seem capable of noticing Quinn's hiding spot, or the ink she had covered the floor with given that it sloshed on through the substance. She took a deep breath before slipping out of her ink and onto an unpainted segment of the floor.

It didn't take long before the agent was spotted. Twisting around, the machine locked onto Quinn, eyes narrowing in hatred. Instantly the large hulking beast charged forward, ready to come crashing down directly on top of her. She wasted no time in ducking back into her ink and swimming a short distance away, only standing up once it was too late for the Octostomp to abort its attack.

The ground shook as the machine came crashing down, Agent 3 already inking a lopsided path up its side. Her second successful trip up to the top of the robot was a bit slower and more cautious, as she didn't want to get snagged on any of the exposed wires. By the time the girl was standing in front of the thrashing tentacle the metal beneath her feet was already starting to shake. Wasting no time, Quinn blasted the tentacle with more black ink, bursting it once more before jumping away from the fountain of enemy ink. She landed on the ground at the other end of the battlefield, catching her breath and waiting for the inevitable attack.

Sure enough, the tentacle respawned, thrashing about in the air before vanishing back into the machine. Whirling around it let out another fearsome roar, more metal flying off its sides in shattered bits and pieces. Apparently, some of the wires started to short circuit as well, if the jagged bots and sparks of electricity jumping out from the sides was anything to go by. Eyes narrowed in hatred, the Octostomp snarled and dashed forward.

"Holy mackerel!" Quinn yelped and scrambled backward, awkwardly falling to the ground in her haste. There was no time for her to climb back to her feet, and instead, the girl lunged to the side. Unexpectedly the ground beneath her vanished, and Agent 3 found herself rolling down a slope. Thankfully it was not a long trip down, as the girl soon landed on a smaller metal platform surrounding the main battlefield.

Moments later there was a thunderous crash as the Octostomp smashed into the ground. The very front of it hung off the edge of the upper platform, and fuschia ink splattered down on the trembling girl below. It burned as it came into contact with her skin, and shakily the teenager sprayed a small puddle of ink to submerge herself in. Charcoal eyes blinked up at her foe, flinching a bit at the pure and unadulterated hatred present in its mechanical eyes.

"Agent 3? Agent 3, come in!" Cuttlefish's voice crackled over the radio, concern evident in his voice. "Bucko, are you there?"

"Y-yeah...I'm alive," Quinn stuttered, emerging from the ink to sit against the shallow slope. "Somehow…"

Above her, the Octostomp grumpily stood up, upset over not having been able to squash its target into an inky pulp. It began to pace back and forth around the edge, unable to get down to the skinnier lower platform. The machine was simply too big to fit down there, rendering Quinn safe for the time being - something that the girl was immensely thankful for. She could afford to take a few moments to catch her breath, steady her nerves, and come up with a plan.

"First things first," she mumbled, thinking aloud. "I have to get back up there without being squashed."

Recalling how the bomb had worked as a suitable distraction, Quinn armed one and proceeded to chuck it up onto the upper platform. She had forgotten, however, that the machine could see her throw the inksplosive, rendering it useless as a distraction. The large weapon steadfastly ignored the splat bomb, keeping its gaze trained on Quinn.

"Okay then," the black tentacled inkling sighed. "Time for plan b."

She set off to the west, spraying ink from her hero shot as she went. The Octostomp followed her, scurrying around on its comically tiny legs. Quinn did her best to ignore its presence, focusing instead on her task. Completing the trip around the concentric circle didn't take long, and soon there was a continuous trail of black ink. With a smirk the agent dove into it, vanishing from view. Now unable to see its target the Octostomp let out a frustrated growl before stomping back towards the middle of the battlefield.

Once it was gone from view Quinn aimed her gun skyward and sprayed more ink into the air, aiming for the upper platform to give her some area to hide up there. Taking one final breath she swam up the ink coated slope and onto the upper area. Fortunately, she managed to time her ascent so that she arrived at the top while her opponent's back was turned. So far so good - she was unspotted, and therefore still safe.

Things would only get more difficult from this point on, however. Climbing up the side this time would be challenging, especially with the electrified wires. It was not something that Quinn was looking forward to, but it was something she would have to do.

"Welp, time to get this over with…" Quinn quickly stood up, waiting for the Octostomp to notice her. It quickly did, rushing forward a few paces before leaping into the air. Narrowly its target skipped out of the way, already firing her weapon as the Octostomp crashed into the ground. She took her time, slathering the side with plenty of ink. There would be no room for error, no haphazard pathway up the sides this time. She wanted the reassurance of a nice, broad area of ink to catch herself with in case of a fall. Such painstaking care meant that an attempt to climb up to the flailing tentacles was impossible at that point in time. Quinn was forced to repeat her actions twice more, baiting the Octostomp into attacking and then coating the sides in more ink. The girl had several more close calls during this process, barely able to scramble out of the way of the large machine and the impending threat of being splatted that came with each attack.

Once she was certain that one side was completely coated in ink, Quinn rose out of her ink for what she hoped was the final time. The teenager was growing weary of this long fight and the constant risk of death that came with it. Her legs and lungs ached, and no doubt there would be several lovely bruises on her back come morning, courtesy of her earlier falls.

"Come on, you big overgrown robot," she muttered, waiting for the Octostomp to notice her. One long moment later, it finally turned, catching sight of the upstart inkling that dared to challenge it. Letting out a roar it sprinted forward, rushing straight forward, faster than it had ever moved before. Quinn's eyes widened in shock, and with a startled screech she dove to the side, landing awkwardly on her side. Right next to her the great beast smashed down, just barely missing the startled teen. Hurriedly the girl scrambled to her feet and swam up the side, hopping over slight gaps where electricity flickered up from the depths of the beast. She reached the top, facing the flailing tentacle once again. Taking aim at the appendage, she blasted it with ink one final time, the fleshy tentacle thrashing about as the foreign ink came into contact with it.

Finally, it burst, the Octostomp shaking violently beneath her as it let out a dying scream. The machine practically exploded, metal plating, wiring, and fuschia ink flying everywhere. Quinn was unable to jump away in time and got caught up in the jumbled mess, sent flying to the very outskirts of the arena. Moments later something heavy landed on top of he, the girl squirming her way out from underneath as the destructive end of the Octostomp came to a close.

Much to her surprise, it was a male octoling, obviously knocked out from the explosion. Quinn had no idea how he had gotten there - perhaps he had been inside the Octostomp the entire time - but given that he currently posed no threat she ignored him. There were more important things to focus on, namely the zapfish that sat trapped in its cage. Quickly the agent walked over and broke it open, retrieving the creature from inside.

"Cap'n, this is Agent 3 reporting in," she announced as she began heading back for the kettle. "I've taken out the Octostomp and retrieved another zapfish. I'll provide more details back at the base."

* * *

 **Yay, finished with another chapter! Great news, surgery went well and the tendinitis calmed down so I should be able to write more frequently now. I'm hoping to maybe get a "one chapter a week" schedule going for the summer but we'll have to see how that works out.**

 **BlueTornado and OctoReader, thank you both so much for the reviews and all your kind words and support, it really means a lot to me. You both are awesome, and I'm so glad you're enjoying this story so much!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

The next two weeks passed by with an aching slowness. Much to her dismay, Quinn discovered that sometime during her fight with the Octostomp she had twisted her ankle. This, combined with her other injuries, was enough to convince Cuttlefish to take her off of active duty until everything healed up. To make matters worse, ink battles were out of the question as well. It was kind of hard for one to run around netting splats and covering turf when one could only limp instead of walk, after all.

She had done as much as possible to prepare for the upcoming rumble, studying maps for the Kelp Dome and coming up with strategies to try take out her four opponents. The girl wasn't sure if the rumble was a standard turf war or if the only thing that counted were splats. If the former was true then she might have a better chance at doing well. The only real turfing weapon the boys had was Dash's tri slosher 's splatling would be able to do decently in the turfing department as well, but Liam and Zane didn't exactly have weapons with a high capacity to ink the ground. They were better off getting splats with their luna blaster and e-liter 3k.

Then again, all of them were much better weapons than her splattershot jr, whether or not they had great turfing or splatting capabilities. If it hadn't been for the fact that Quinn was kind of depending on the splat bombs to get her out of a sticky situation or two, she'd have bought the normal splattershot. Even then, the black tentacled teenager wasn't sure that having a different weapon would help that much, aside from maybe her hero shot.

Even if she hadn't been able to get a new weapon, though, she had bought some new gear. It wasn't that much of an improvement over the basic beginner gear - a rockenberg black tee, black trainers, and a streetstyle cap she kept perched on her head. Still though, they were better than what her first pieces of gear. The fact that it matched her sense of style was merely a bonus.

Ultimately the weapons and gear she carried with her were of little matter. The strategies that the girl came up with were what would ultimately determine how well she did. Right now the teenager had exactly one: try not to be splatted that much and hope for the best. Yes, she was winging it, which was perhaps a foolish move. Then again, though, Quinn had never claimed to be a careful planner.

"I still can't believe I'm doing this," the teenager muttered as she slowly slipped through the doors of the Kelp Dome. "This is the worst idea in the history of all my bad ideas."

Sighing, Quinn began wandering through the rows of vegetable matter, following the signs that guided visitors to the turf war stadium. It was hard to see in the gloomy darkness, and more than once she brushed against a low hanging plant only to recoil with a slight yelp. The whole place was just downright creepy, and it felt like at any point in time something or someone would jump out at her. Why Ryker had decided to hold the fight in such an eerie place was beyond the girl, but she was definitely going to complain about that once she found him.

"Hey, rookie! Up here!"

Speak of the devil, and he doth appear. The grumpy orange inkling himself was standing in the center of the arena, just visible above the walls separating the battlefield from the rest of the greenhouse. No doubt he had noticed her wandering around and, being the impatient man he was, called out to her rather than waiting for her to slowly find them in the darkness. Quinn groaned but backed up a few paces before getting a running start and leaping over the walls and down into the battlefield. From there she quickly made her way to the center, inking a small path up the center tower so she could stand among the boys.

"You actually showed?" Liam sounded shocked, staring at the girl with a gaping mouth. "Do you have a death wish or something?"

"Nah," Quinn replied flippantly, strolling over to Ryker and throwing an arm over his shoulder. "I just figured that Ryker must be obsessed with me, he just can't seem to get me out of his mind."

"You're going to pay for that," the orange tentacled inkling vowed, shaking the girl's arm off. Quinn shrugged, a smirk on her face, while Dash suppressed a snicker. It was nice to see his friend so at ease, given how worked up she had been about the rumble weeks prior.

"Well, if you're planning on sitting around here shooting the breeze, I'm leaving," the girl retorted, grinning. "I didn't drag my body out of bed for tea and cookies you know. Unless you want to forfeit, that's perfectly acceptable too."

"In your dreams," Liam muttered.

"Keep on running that big mouth of yours," Ryker warned the girl. "You're going to regret even suggesting that we forfeit."

"I seriously doubt that but whatever floats your boat," she replied innocently. Quinn knew she was pushing Ryker's buttons, but at the moment she really didn't care. Perhaps if he let his rage get the better of him he'd be an easy target, making it that much easier for Quinn to take him out. It was a long shot, but if there was a chance that it would help then the teenager was willing to take it.

"Why you little-"

"I hate to interrupt but if we don't get started soon we're going to miss our chance," Zane pointed out.

"Oh, so you actually do want to fight," the black tentacled inkling said cheerily. "Great, what're the rules so I can get to work splatting you? Are we doing a turf war or a splat match?"

Ryker glared at Quinn, causing the girl's smile to grow even wider. She certainly was enjoying herself.

"Anything goes, rookie," he spat out, anger leaching into the air from his deadly voice. "We're doing a splat match, so the side with the most splats at the end of the night wins. Given that there are four of us and only one of you, I've graciously decided that we'll multiply your score by four. Not that that'll change anything though."

"And how much do you want to bet on that?"

"Guys, focus," Zane snapped, an uncharacteristic action from him. "We fight until seven thirty tomorrow morning, that gives us eight hours to run around here undisturbed, tally the scores, wipe the cameras, and get out of here before the referees arrive for the day. The ink should fade by then. Any questions?"

"Nope," Quinn replied with a wink. "See you all later, alligators! Enjoy losing!"

Before Ryker could snap, she shifted into a squid and super jumped over to one of the spawn points. Beneath her the clear ink rippled for a minute before turning black to match her coloring. Behind her, the girl could hear Ryker growl and bark a few last orders to his team - probably telling them to not show her any mercy. Had she been able to see it the boys, even Dash, had deadly serious looks on their faces, now ready for absolutely anything. The time for fun was over. Now, the game turned serious.

From her perch, Quinn watched as the four boys jumped to the other spawn point, shifting into a uniform orange hue. Subconsciously her hand tensed around the handle of her gun, finger resting on the trigger almost to the point of pulling it. Just the slightest bit of pressure would be enough to set the weapon ablaze.

"The rumble starts in three...two...one...go!"

At Dash's cry Quinn was off like a rocket, jumping off the platform to the ground below. Ink was already spraying out of her gun, She had to get moving, and do it quickly. If the young teen had any chance of doing well, she'd need to focus on covering turf to establish some control over the areas and avoid being splatted. Then, once she had laid down a sufficient amount of ink to claim her territory, the girl could turn to the real objective: splating inklings.

She inked a bit around the spawn point before heading to the right, dipping down into her ink and sailing over a ramp. This was a foolish move, going into enemy territory so quickly, not just because of her recklessness but also because Dash was right there.

"Sorry," he sad before emptying the contents of his slosher onto the surprised girl. With a quiet yelp she burst apart, her little black ghost flying back towards the respawn pad. Dash watched he go before pressing himself against the wall directly underneath the ramp. He may have liked Quinn as a friend, but a match was still a match.

Quinn emerged from the slightly thicker black ink pooling in the respawn pad, shaking her head a few times to clear it. She had been foolish, and as a result was already behind Ryker's team. Rushing in head first was a bad idea. Cautiously the girl swam off of the platform, taking a moment to cover the raised area only she had access to. So far everything was relatively quiet, as no one had made it over to her spawn point yet.

Taking a deep breath, she was about to head away from where she was splatted when it occurred to her that they probably were expecting her to do that. It would be better to go back the same way as before. With that in mind Quinn tossed a bomb over to an uninked corner before diving into the black ink and swimming towards the right again. As she approached the ramp, the teenager came to a stop and peaked over the edge. Sure enough, Dash was still down there, lying in wait. He was leaning up against the wall, eyes facing towards the center arena just in case the action moved over there. No doubt he had been expecting the girl to take the same exact path again.

Quinn almost laughed out loud but managed to hold her chuckles in. She instead settled for a smirk and pulled out a splat bomb. After all the time spent in Octo Valley she was a pro at arming them, and soon the bomb was primed for exploding. The teen's smirk grew wider, and carefully she scooted forward to hang off the edge of the ramp a bit, lowering the bomb so that it was almost to the ground. The next part would be tricky.

Deliberately she let out a loud burp, causing Dash to jump and raise his slosher. Quinn dropped the bomb, the soft click unnoticed by the startled inkling.

"Excuse me," she said with a shark-like grin as Dash glared at her. He went to go throw more ink on her, but Quinn pushed the weapon back down before any of the orange substance could fly out.

"Aw, did I scare you?" The black inkling sounded incredulous as she spoke. "Man, I'm really sorry for scaring you twice."

"Twice," Dash asked in a confused manner. "What do you mean twi-"

He was cut off as the splat bomb blew up, splatting him. Quinn laughed delightedly as his little orange ghost zipped away. No doubt she'd pay for that little stunt later, but for now, it was worth it given the expression on Dash's face.

"Meh, I guess that was a somewhat decent shot, rookie."

Quinn paled before rolling the rest of the way off the ramp as Ryker let loose with his hydra splatling. A few of the ink bullets nicked her, and the teenager flattened herself against the wall to avoid them. It was unfortunate that Zane was lying in wait, and she dodged a shot from his luna blaster neo. Ryker jumped down in front of the girl, his splatling already charged up. With a vicious smirk he fired, the ink slamming into his opponent and splatting her. Due to the close range it hurt more than normal, the ink ripping into her body angrily. When she respawned moments later, the black tentacled inkling was appalled to see that some bruises were already forming. The teenager snarled and ran back into the battlefield. Ryker was going to regret making her mad.

* * *

Sadly, three hours later, Quinn had yet to get her vengeance on Ryker - or any of the others, for that matter. She had lost count of the times she had been splatted, and almost all of the pitiful amount of turf she had managed to claim was covered up in orange ink. It hadn't been a total massacre like the teenager was expecting. The spunky teen had managed to get the boys on more than one occasion, including a very lovely double splat with one of her bombs. But now, she was trapped at spawn. Ryker and Liam both had their weapons trained on the girl, ready to splat her the minute the left the safety of the respawn pad's shield. Dash and Zane were off in other places, no doubt eliminating more of her turf. It was a stalemate, someone had to make the first move. The question now was whether or not Quinn would break before the boys did.

Quinn, despite her inherent brashness, did have the capability to be patient if the moment called for it. She was prepared to camp out all night, if necessary.

Finally, an hour and a half into her vigil, Ryker stormed off. He was obviously disgusted with the girl's stubbornness. This was exactly what Quinn had been hoping for, and with a grin she inked a tiny bit of turf to fill her special gauge before activating her bubbler. Diving off the platform, she splatted Liam before he could call out a warning. She then swam stealthily after Ryker, popping up just behind the older teen. Almost as if he could sense her presence the boy turned around, but it was already too late. Quinn's splattershot jr was already blazing, black ink flying out to strike him. It was an easy splat.

Quinn grinned in a shark-like manner before dashing off, her bubbler fading away as the special ran out. Now was her chance to turn the tide of the rumble! It went without saying that she was suddenly in a much better mood, but that quickly faded as a grouping of shadows passed over the glass dome covering the entire greenhouse. The girl came to a screeching halt, barely caring as Zane snuck up behind her and splatted the girl. She knew what those shadows were.

"Octarian UFOs," she mumbled as soon as the respawn process finished, paling as they came to a stop and began hovering just above the glass. No doubt they were planning on breaking in, establishing a base here. As important as the rumble was to the girl, this was much more important. With a frantic expression on her face, the black tentacled inkling dove off the spawn point and began dashing for the exit. She had to get out of there and get to Octo Valley, now.

"Hey," Ryker demanded as he dropped down in front of the girl, Liam and Dash appearing behind Quinn. "Where are you going, rookie? We aren't done with you yet."

"Look, I don't have time to explain," Quinn replied in a panic. "I've got to go, now! And you all need to get out of here too!"

"We aren't done!"

"Uh, Ryker," Dash hesitated. "This isn't like her...I think maybe perhaps we should-"

"Shut up," Ryker snapped, red in the face. He began advancing threateningly towards the girl, causing Quinn to growl softly. There was a look in her eyes, an almost feral one, that slightly scared the orange inkling.

"I don't have time for this," she hissed before raising her gun. Before any of them could react she had activated her bubbler again and splatted all of them. Once they were out of the way the teen darted over to one of the walls and hopped over it, darting off into the darkness of the warehouse. She hated to run off - technically she was forfeiting - but stopping the octarians was her number one priority.

"I can't believe she just gave up and ran off!" Ryker was fuming as he respawned. "Actually, I can believe it, rookies like her are just scared little scrubs who should have just stayed home with their mothers. But still! She's got a lot of nerve to come in here running her mouth only to-"

He trailed off as he realized that Zane was somehow knocked out and tied up, tossed in a corner down below. Liam gawked at the scene, only to suddenly let out a groan and fall to the ground in the ink. Dash glanced in his direction, only to pale.

"Hey Ryker," he said carefully, dropping his slosher and slowly raising his hands above his head. "You might want to drop your splatling."

"Huh? What for?" The orange inkling, as it turned out, would never get an answer. The octoling behind him slammed her weapon against the side of his head, knocking him out. As Dash watched, Ryker fell to the floor with a dull groan. Two of the octolings tied him up and tossed him next to Liam and Zane, while a third collected all the weapons. Someone roughly grabbed Dash's hands and began to tie them together behind his back.

"Looks like you've got a bit more sense than your friends," the octoling said as she finished restraining him. "So, are there any other of you inkling scum around here, or is it just you and your buddies?"

"There was someone else," Dash replied carefully as he was walked over to his friends. "They ran off, though. That dirty coward just wasted our entire evening, talking a big game, bragging about how they could take all four of us on with no help and still win. His bark is a lot worse than his bite as it turned out. I mean, once he-"

"Ugh, too many details!" The octoling shook her head in frustration and shoved him onto the ground next to his teammates. "Are they here or not? Yes or no answers only."

"No," Dash squeaked.

"Thank you," the octoling scowled.

"Octavia quit messing with the prisoners," another octoling ordered. "We need to get this base set up before Cuttlefish's new recruit gets here to try and spoil our fun."

"Let them come," Octavia chuckled darkly. "It will be nice to get some good old-fashioned revenge."

* * *

 **Eh heh heh, sorry about the delay in publishing this next chapter. I've had kind of a rough past few weeks. Hopefully the next update won't take too long to publish.**

 **A big thanks to BlueTornado3257, Chigger D, and Anon Omega for reviewing this story.**

 **To answer your question, Tornado...that's a yes and no answer. Suffice it to say that Agent 8 will make an appearance in this series of fanfics eventually, but it might not necessarily be in this one.**

 **Other than that, please leave reviews if you have any questions or comments aboutmy work!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

"Man, the last time I ran this fast I was trying to catch a train," Quinn panted out as she sprinted through the sewers. She had to get to Cap'n Cuttlefish as fast as possible. By now, the octarians could have easily taken over the entire Kelp Dome, not just the turf war arena. If they got a foothold there they could easily launch an attack on Inkopolis. That would be disastrous. Ryker and his friends were probably dead or captured as well. Now, granted, Ryker, Liam, and Zane were not Quinn's favorite inklings in the world. But, much as the teenager disliked them, she really didn't want them to be caught up in the octarian situation. That would be a pain in the butt for her later. It went without saying that Dash would also be a problem if he found out about her night job, but since he was her friend Quinn was much more concerned for his well being than that of the other boys.

"I really need to hook up some sort of transportations system down here," she mumbled, coming to a stop below the grate. "Maybe inkrails like they use to take inklings to turf war arenas? Oh well, that can be a question for later."

With a miniature super jump, she burst through the grate, landing on the ground. Cuttlefish, surprisingly, was still awake, appearing to be watching something in the valley. There was a flicker of movement, and Quinn almost thought she saw three other inklings dressed in agent garb vanishing over the side of a cliff but put it out of her mind. She could ask about them later.

"What're you doing here, bucko?" Cuttlefish asked. "You aren't supposed to be placed back on active duty for another...Quinn? What's wrong?"

"No time to explain," the teenager replied hurriedly, brushing past him and darting into the cabin. Quickly she ducked behind the partition and changed into her hero suit, not even bothering to take the time to put her stuff on the proper shelf. Her gear and weapons lay abandoned on the floor as their owner ran out the door, snagging her hero shot and special splat bombs in the process. Hooking her weapon to her ink tank, Quinn charged into Octo Valley, ignoring Cuttlefish's cry to come back.

"Come on come on come on," she growled, racing through the first area. "Where is that kettle?"

Sadly, nothing new was in sight. There was no new kettle, no new launchpad, no new anything that could provide a clue as to where or how the octarians had gotten into the Kelp Dome. This was quickly frustrating the girl. Yes, most of the troops probably came in via the airships, but there had to be some quicker way for troops to get back to octarian territory. That was Quinn's theory anyway, and she desperately needed it to be correct.

The girl sighed and glanced down at the time display on her wrist. It had been three hours since she had fled the rumble, meaning that in just under two hours it would be daylight. If she didn't get the octarians out of there before the morning then she was going to have bigger problems on her hands than simply freeing Ryker's crew and chasing the octarians away. Inkling society could find out, and that would pose its own sets of risks and problems.

As she began another sweep of the area, Quinn noticed an unactivated ink rail sitting a short distance away from the kettles. Curious, the agent ran over and activated it, hoping that maybe it would lead to another part of the Valley. A thin rope of black ink shot out over the void, heading for one of the floating island clumps nearby. With a bit of hesitance, Quinn dove in and began the perilous swim across the deep crevice in the earth.

"Just don't look down," she mumbled, ignoring her own advice and looking down. "Don't look down and everything will be fine."

The chasm was deep, bottom obscured by darkness. The very look of it frightened the girl, and she was grateful when the inkrail reached the other side. Relieved, she looked around, studying her new surroundings. This island vaguely reminded her of Blackbelly Skatepark, albeit much more desolate and broken down. There were rails for skateboards to ride on, and smooth sided depressions in the earth for tricks. Perhaps sometime in the past, it was a beautiful park suspended above the ground, filled with laughter and youth. Now only a few crows watched her, black eyes pinned on her every move. It was eerie, and Quinn felt a few icy shivers run down her spine. Trying to tear her gaze away from the birds, she instead searched for a kettle. Soon she spotted it, resting on a high platform.

"Man, they didn't even use that cloaking technology on it…" Quinn muttered as she climbed up to it. "It's almost like they're begging me to come and spoil their fun. Well, I better not disappoint them!"

With an almost playful smirk, the girl shifted into a squid and slipped through the grates, vanishing into the transportation networks.

A half an hour trip through the network later and Quinn emerged in a makeshift kettle that had been set up within the greenhouse. How it had been connected to the octarian base without one of the ink filled tunnels linking it back was beyond her, but she had more important things to worry about - namely the five octolings standing guard.

"Raise the alarm," one of them yelled as she raised her weapon, opening fire. Quinn let out a rather undignified yelp and dove behind a nearby planter. Hurriedly she readied a bomb and pulled her gun free from its holster before darting back out into the open. She was instantly assaulted by four of the enemy cephalopods, fuschia ink flying everywhere. A few of the bullets nicked her, one volley solidly landing on her back. The black tentacled agent hissed and threw her bomb, the explosion catching a pair of them of them off guard. With a loud explosion, it went off, splatting them. Ink went flying, splashing onto a third whom Quinn quickly dispatched with her gun.

One of the octolings hissed and jabbed the butt end of her gun into the inkling's stomach, causing her to double over, coughing. They followed it up with a salvo of ink that splatted the girl, sending her little squid ghost flying off somewhere. By this time the fifth octoling had sounded the alarm, more octolings streaming out to start hunting for the intruder. It was fortunate that none of them looked up and saw Quinn's squid ghost up above them in the air.

It ended up being drawn to the respawn pad she had used during the rumble, still dyed a dark black hue. The process took a few minutes, but soon enough Quinn was standing upright again, surveying the area. There were octolings patrolling here as well, though there seemed to be less of them in the actual turf war arena. Crates had been dragged in, probably filled with octarian technology. Far on the other side she could see another zapfish, trapped in a glass cage. It was resting on the platform that held the spawn point, making it relatively inaccessible. Dark masses were moving around it, appearing to be busy attaching things to the cage. A few minutes later, bright light filled the warehouse, illuminated by zapfish power.

"Not so bright, idiot," a voice snapped. "The inklings will grow suspicious if they notice that the lights are on full blast!"

"Sorry…" A quieter response echoed in the air, and moments later the lights were dimmed, leaving just enough radiance to see. Quinn groaned, rubbing her eyes to try and clear the spots out of her vision while waiting for it to adjust to the dull gloom.

"Welp, not exactly how I was planning on starting things off," she mumbled. "At least I bypassed most of the guards from the looks of it. Question is, how do I get the zapfish?"

She trailed off, lost in thought, until fuschia ink suddenly went whizzing through the air right in front of her. Glancing downwards, she was confronted by the sight of an octolings below her, a scowl plastered on her face.

"Agent 3 is here," she yelled. Quinn sighed and darted out onto the grates, splatting her before another cry could escape the enemy cephalopod.

"...guess I'm not sneaking around like I was planning," the teenaged agent said with a shake of her head before raising her voice. "I'm giving you all one chance. Release your prisoners, and the zapfish. In exchange, I will let you collect your wounded and leave here with no further harm."

"Are you crazy bucko?" Cap'n Cuttlefish's voice crackled over the radio. "They're the octarians, they're not interested in peace."

"A girl can always hope," Quinn replied calmly before groaning as a defiant war cry rose from the depths of the greenhouse. In all honesty she had been expecting them to brush aside her offer, but it didn't hurt to ask.

"Agent 3!" A tall octoling with a crown of kelp woven into her black tentacles appeared next to the zapfish's cage, her form illuminated by the radiance emanating from the creature. Although the strange goggles that all octolings wore covered her eyes, Quinn knew that she was staring right at her. Much as the inkling hated to admit it, this enemy was definitely intimidating, but she forced herself to put on an nonchalant expression.

"I am Commander Odette," the octoling yelled across the arena. "Leader of all espionage units and recently made commander of all invasions, handpicked by our esteemed king himself."

"If you're the head honcho around here, I don't think I have anything to worry about," Quinn joked. Sadly, Odette didn't rise to the bait.

"We have you outnumbered and outgunned," Odette informed her. "Return the three zapfish you have stolen from us and swear to leave the Squidbeak Splatoon. If you do those things, we will not only release our prisoners, we shall also let you leave here with your life."

"Sorry kiddo," the agent replied, grinning when Odette flushed a deep red. That remark had touched a nerve. "Ryker may be loved by a lot of inklings, but I'm no fan of him. Besides, I"m not going to be dumb enough to trade three zapfish for four inklings. Only a fool would do that. And as for you outnumbering and outgunning me, I'm not worried about that. Unless you're willing to take me on in a one on one fight, you will always have numbers on your side."

"Besides," she continued, her grin growing wider. "I took out the supposedly great and mighty Octostomp with my own two hands. Why should I fear the likes of you?"

"I saw your fight with the Octostomp," Odette answered, contempt lacing her voice. "You won because of dumb luck, plain and simple. Had it not been for that, Orion would have destroyed you. There was no special accomplishment on your part."

"Orion?" Quinn tilted her head, a confused look on her face before she recalled the male octoling that had landed on her in the battlefield. Perhaps that was his name. In the grand scheme of things, it really didn't matter too much at the moment.

"Yes," Odette frowned. "I take it since you have not given me an answer that you are refusing my generous offer?"

"I am," the agent replied confidently. "Just as I assume that you are refusing mine."

"You are correct in that assumption," the octoling said in a deadly voice. "Agent 3, prepare to die."

"Yeah, yeah, sure I'm going to die kiddo," Quinn yelled after her. "Not today though!"

She dropped down to the raised platform behind the spawn point and started to ink the surrounding turf. Thanks to her exceptional hearing, she could hear Odette giving the orders for her soldiers to move out. With an almost feral war, cry an octoling super jumped to her fallen comrade's location. The warrior wasted no time in also starting to ink the area, covering up Quinn's black ink with a sickly fuchsia hue. She went to the left, searching for her target. Unbeknownst to her, however, was the fact that the agent was lurking just above. For a moment, the inkling debated transferring down to the main level and getting into an old fashioned firefight, when an idea suddenly struck her. Swimming over to the ramp on the left, she peaked over the side. It was easy for her to spot the octoling lying in wait, ready to splat Quinn the moment she turned the corner.

Agent 3 almost snickered. This was going to be too easy.

Quietly, she lowered herself until she was hanging from the ramp, upside down. Blood and ink started rushing towards her brain, making her light headed. She didn't have a lot of time, and carefully took aim, a grin adorning her face. With a final check to make sure her weapon was lined up properly, the teenager pressed down on the trigger. Black ink flew out and struck the soldier squarely in the back. A startled screech echoed in the air as the octoling burst apart, ink flying everywhere. Moments later the surface of the newly formed puddle began to boil, and the unconscious octoling rose to the surface.

Quinn smirked before flipping off of the ramp to the lower level, landing gracefully on her feet. She took a moment to survey and ink the surrounding area, then tossed out a few splat bombs as she advanced around one of the walls below the catwalk.

"You're dead!" An octoling sprang out at her, the shock of it causing the black tentacled inkling to jump back a good meter. This one, like Odette, had black tentacles, and her gun fired black ink. Quinn tried to return fire with her own weapon, but it appeared that the ink had no effect.

"...of course...we're the same color so it's not going to work," she realized before closing her eyes and concentrating. Moments later a teal shade rippled down her tentacles, the ink in her tank also changing to the corresponding color. Now armed with a weapon that was effective against her opponent, the teenager advanced, trading fire with the enemy.

"Once I get my hands on you you'll wish you never crossed me!"

"Yeah, about that…" Quinn trailed off in a yelp and sidestepped a bomb before spraying an inky pathway behind her. Slipping into the ink she retreated back towards her spawn point, pausing only to arm a splat bomb and drop it on the ground. The almost rabid octoling came charging through the corridor after her, diving on top of Quinn and pulling her out of the ink. They scuffled briefly, it ending when the octoling pinned the inkling to the floor, a hand around her throat.

Something about the situation was familiar to Quinn, and in this position, she could get a better look at her attacker. Something about her appearance caused a metaphorical light bulb to go off in the girl's brain, and Quinn's choked expression morphed into one of shock.

"You're the octoling I ran into out by Splashtown," she realized.

"Oh, you remember little ol' me," the soldier sneered in response. "I'm flattered...or I would be if you weren't a piece of scum! I'll make you pay for the humiliation I suffered at your hands. Do you have any idea how much trouble I got into because of you?"

"Uh, nope," Quinn shook her head as best as she could, putting a nonchalant expression on her face. "Here, let me see if I care, give me a minute...nope, looks like I don't."

"How," the octoling demanded, "can you be so calm? You're about to die!"

"Octavia, have you gone mad?" Two other octolings ran over, one prying her hands off of Quinn and the other restraining the inkling.

"We were supposed to capture the agent and take her to Odette before executing her," one admonished. "What on earth has gotten into you?"

"Um yeah, about that execution," Quinn wheezed as she slowly sat up, being careful not to make any obvious threatening moves. One hand was stealthily creeping towards the bomb she had dropped earlier, which had yet to blow up. Something must have gone awry with the explosive mechanism, meaning that she'd have to trigger it manually. That was no problem though. Pulling the pin, so to speak, would be easy.

"I really hate to break it to you three," she continued, not sounding sorry at all. "But that execution? It's not going to happen."

"And why not?" All of them looked at her confused. In response, Quinn smirked and held up the splat bomb, now properly armed. There was just enough time for the three octolings' jaws to drop open before the explosive blew up, splattering teal ink everywhere. Soon enough, three more unconscious bodies joined the others on the floor. Quinn shook her head to clear it, trying to steady her breathing. That had been rather intense, if she did say so herself.

She didn't have nearly enough time to properly compose herself, however, and soon set off on her brief sprint. Footsteps rang out in the near-silent greenhouse as the teenager made her way to the center of the battlefield, pausing only to check the time. It was quarter to seven, meaning she had exactly forty-five minutes to finish taking out the octolings, snag the zapfish, free the prisoners, and get out of there so she could return to Octo Valley undetected. Not exactly a walk in the park, but it was something that had to be done.

Yet another octoling rose up from the sea of fuschia ink, jumping down in front of her. Without batting an eye Quinn dodged the inky bullets that flew from her gun, and responded in kind with some of her own. They easily found their mark, and the soldier was quickly knocked unconscious. The inkling ignored her, instead inking a path up the side of the central tower and taking a moment to break the crate their open. Some armor fell out, latching onto her hero suit as she drew near. It always felt a bit weird, especially when the helmet clamped down on her head. The first time it had happened, Quinn had panicked and thought that something was trying to suck her brain right out of her head.

The sensations soon vanished and, with a sigh, Quinn debated her next options. She could go back down to the lower level and loop around the right side to get to the zapfish. It had more open ground for her to maneuver around in, but was also longer. The other option was the mesh pathway to her left. Going that way would probably cut the trip in half, but it was also very exposed. There would be no places for her to hide and recover from injuries. Time was of the essence though, and this more than anything influenced the girl's decision. Making up her mind, she ran along the catwalk, gun at the ready.

It was well that she had done so, for as she darted towards the ramp on the other side an octoling super jumped a short distance away. She had been lying in wait, though the soldier had not appeared to expect Quinn to sneak up behind her. The cephalopod began firing the moment she landed, but Quinn had already turned into a squid and fallen through the grate. There was another crate there, tucked out of sight behind the ramp. Eagerly the black tentacled inkling smashed it, hoping for more armor or perhaps a special in a can. Instead, however, a tattered scroll fell out.

The agent almost sighed in exasperation before remembering where exactly she was. Choosing to complain later, Quinn shoved the ancient paper into one of the many pockets in her jacket and crept around the corner. As soon as the lone octoling spotted her, she recklessly charged towards the newest agent of the Squidbeak Splatoon, causing Quinn to open fire with her gun. It was an easy splat, but the octoling managed to land several blows before succumbing to unconsciousness. Quinn groaned as the armor protecting her broke open, but abandoned the shattered pieces of metal and cloth as she snuck towards the opponent's spawn point.

"How," she mused, scratching her head in confusion, "am I going to get up there?"

She sighed and studied the surrounding area, trying to spot the prisoners when another octoling jumped down from above, letting out a loud war cry. That gradually petered off into a scream as she slipped on her own ink and went flying through the air. Quinn facepalmed as her idiotic assailant crashed into a large wall of crates, breaking them open. The force caused her to fall to the ground, stunned, and Quinn wasted no time in splatting her.

"Well, that was easier than I thought."

"Enjoy it while it lasts, bucko," Cuttlefish remarked. "Time's a-wasting and you don't have a lot of it!"

"Right." Quinn looked around, trying to find a way to get on to the upper platform. An inkrail in the midst of the crates caught her eye. Shrugging, the teenager darted over to it and hit it with a few bullets. A trail of teal ink shot out, covering the distance between the ground and the ledge above. With a grin plastered on her face, Quinn slipped into the ink and swam upwards. As she surveyed the new area, a group of seven figures caught her attention, Frowning, she scaled one of the nearby tanks - what was stored in them was beyond her - hoping for a better view.

In the dim light she could see Odette and two elite octolings surveying their four prisoners. Even with her excellent eyesight, the teenaged agent was unable to tell if any of the boys were moving. There was a good chance that Ryker, Liam, Zane, and Dash were still alive. At least, Quinn hoped that they were.

"Ugh, finally that chatty one passed out," one of the octolings standing guard said with a groan. "I thought he'd never shut up."

"Eh, guess the nerves turned him into a motor mouth," the other one replied. "At least he was somewhat pleasant. I mean, he could have easily been cursing us out and trying to escape."

"He'd have been a fool for doing so," Odette scoffed. "He has no weapon, and no hope of getting out of here without being recaptured."

"True...what are we going to do with them anyway?"

"Let me kill them!" The first octoling jumped up and down in excitement, a crazed look on her face. "All inklings should pay for what they did to us."

"Calm down," the second one admonished. "You're acting like Octavia again, Have a little more restraint. Dead inklings can't be used as leverage."

Up on the tank, Quinn growled as the two began to debate possible options for the prisoners' future. She would, however, be lying if their words didn't bring the tiniest hint of relief. If they were trying to figure out what to do with the four boys, then that meant that for now they were all alive. Granted that could change in an instant, but the girl pushed those unpleasant thoughts out of her head and pulled out a splat bomb. She had an idea in mind, and although it was risky, she was pretty sure it was going to pay off in the end.

Down below the two octolings had moved off to the side, continuing their argument while Odette tried to ignore them. This was what Quinn had been waiting for, and with a grin she rolled the splat bomb over the side of the tank. It hit the ground right next to the guards and blew up, splatting both of them. The sound woke Dash up, and he along with Odette gaped at the sight of two unconscious bodies lying on the ground.

"I didn't do that," he said quickly.

"I know…" Odette growled and reached for her gun.

Quinn snickered before leaping off the tank, kicking Odette's legs out from underneath her before ripping the ink tank off her back and smashing it on the ground. It broke apart, though a closer examination would have revealed that it could easily be fixed. Inkling and octoling scuffled, launching kicks and punches at each other as Odette desperately tried to force Quinn's hero shot out of her hands. Sadly for the octoling leader, the agent managed to force her to the ground and press her gun to the back of her head.

"I do believe this is called checkmate," the agent said, a grim smile adorning her face and a deadly serious look in her charcoal gray eyes. "Game over Odette. I've won this time."

Dash almost had a heart attack right then and there. The voice was instantly recognizable as Quinn's.

* * *

 **Surprise! Another chapter is done. Actually, two chapters! That's right I've got a double update for you all. I've kind of been stuck in bed for the last two days so I've been doing tons of writing. It kind of stinks that I haven't been feeling well, but since I've been getting in lots of writing I'm not too upset about it.**

 **A big thanks to BlueTornado3275 and SquidbaggerOfWoomyAndNgyesness for reviewing! Your kind words mean a whole lot to me, and hopefully you like these next two chapters as well!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chaper 9**

Dash couldn't believe it. The agent had Quinn's voice. Once he realized that the blue tentacled inkling could see other common similarities between this strange inkling in front of him and Quinn. They both shared the bronze-soaked skin and stormy gray eyes, as well as a similar cocky attitude. There were still questions lingering in Dash's mind, however. What was Quinn doing here? Where did she get that fresh looking outfit and strange gun? More importantly, what was she planning on doing?

Odette, lying on the ground in front of him, looked extremely frustrated. Quinn had yet to disarm her, but Dash knew the reason why. Sure, the octoling commander still had her bombs and her octoshot, but without any ink to fill them with they were worthless. Even using them as projectile weapons was a lost cause. They wouldn't provide a large enough distraction for her to slip away, and Quinn would easily be able to splat her before that was even a possibility.

"Go ahead and do it," Odette hissed, venom tainting her voice. "Kill me, just like you did to the rest of my squadron, Agent 3."

"Look, I'm a lot of things," Quinn replied. "One of the agents of the New Squidbeak Splatoon being among those many things. However, I am not a killer. Look around you, Odette. You will see that your squadron have been splatted, yes, but it merely knocked them unconscious. They'll probably wake up in a few hours."

"I doubt it."

"I haven't killed anyone else," her victor sighed. "I'd honestly rather not kill, the thought of it sickens me. Now are you going to surrender or are you going to try anything else?"

"...Why?" Odette muttered, dropping her gun and bombs reluctantly. "This is the fifth time you've stopped us and yet you don't kill any of our troops. That's not a smart move, given that we're mortal enemies."

"...maybe it doesn't have to be like that," Quinn whispered quietly before shaking her head and raising her voice to an audible level. "That doesn't matter right now. I'm still willing to make a deal with you, Odette. I'm confiscating your gun and splat bombs. I also want you to call in an unarmed retrieval team to get all of your troops out of here - without the zapfish or the prisoners, of course."

"And what makes you think that I will do that willingly?"

"If you don't, I'm going to knock you out, tie you and your troops up, and let the security guards find you in the morning," she replied with a grin. "Given that octarians are supposedly extinct according to most inklings you'd all attract a fair bit of attention, and not the kind you want. Trust me when I say that my option is the better of the two."

"Why wouldn't you want me to be in jail," Odette asked, trying to stall for time. "Or studied as a lab rat? Wouldn't you want some extra help from your pathetic inkling authorities? Or do you have some twisted desire to be a hero?"

"I'm giving you one last chance," Quinn retorted as she picked up the fallen splat bombs and octoshot. "Call now, or I'm going to splat you."

"...Fine…" With a defeated look on her face, the octoling set about contacting the retrieval squadron, relaying the inkling's demands to them. Predictably they were not happy about having to come in unarmed. A few harsh words from their leader, however, forced them into compliance.

Ten minutes later, the first of several octarian airships came into view, flying into the greenhouse through a section of glass that the soldiers had carefully removed. The discs came in for a landing, ground troops quickly disembarking as Quinn watched, being careful to stick near Odette. It was wise of her to do so, for suddenly one of the grunts charged at her, ready to splat his enemy. She took him out without batting an eye before pressing the gun execution style against Odette's temple. The octoling's body now formed a sort of shield between the two sides, and though Quinn spoke not a word, her message was clear.

No one had dared to try anything funny after that.

They loaded up all the crates, broken and unbroken, cleaning the entire area until it was spotless. Any traces of the fight were lost as the connection to the octarian kettle network was removed, and the shattered armor and weapons littering the floor were picked up. A few began working on ripping the inkrails out of the floor, while more started carrying the unconscious octolings into waiting ufos. All of this was accomplished quickly and efficiently as Quinn supervised the proceedings, occasionally glancing over at the prisoners and the zapfish to make sure that they weren't being taken in secret.

Once the entire greenhouse was bare, Quinn finally escorted Odette into the last ufo before letting her go. The commander scowled through the window at her as the aircraft's engines quietly roared to life. Lifting up into the air, it passed through the gap, resealing it behind them and eliminating the last trace of the invasion. Then they were gone, in a full retreat as streaks of light began to creep into the building. Golden rays found paths in through the skylights, lessening the gloom and allowing Quinn to see more clearly. She sighed before looking up at the Zapfish, its cage positioned right over the spawn point. The inkrail leading up there was gone, but the tower it rested on had several ledges she could grab onto.

"...note to self," she groaned as she began climbing the tower. "Next time I stop an invasion, get the zapfish before they remove the inkrails."

After a few minutes of hard climbing, she finally reached the top. Pulling out her hero shot, the teenager swiftly broke the cage and removed the now docile creature from its prison.

"You'll be back home soon, buddy," Quinn said as the little fish playfully growled at some kelp growing nearby, grateful that this one did not seem inclined to shock her. The teen would have left then, but an outraged cry from below drew her attention."

"Oi," Ryker yelled. "What're you doing with that zapfish?"

Quinn shrugged before smirking at him.

"What were you doing running around in the Kelp Dome," she asked in a sickly sweet tone of voice. "And in the middle of the night no less. If I remember correctly, little boy, sneaking into turf war arenas when they aren't on the rotation is against the law. And this place is also private property. You could be charged with trespassing."

Her words struck a nerve, and Ryker practically turned purple with rage. Beside him, Dash and Zane sighed before shifting into squids and worming their way out of the ropes. The former went to work trying to help Liam calm Ryker down, while the latter started studying the girl.

"So could you," Liam pointed out. Quinn snickered and shook her head.

"I don't think so. After all, I just stopped an invasion. The authorities kind of owe me one."

"Who are you anyway?" Zane wondered as Ryker and Liam finally figured out how to get out of the ropes. Although it was perhaps a bit malicious of her, Quinn certainly hoped that their egos took quite the beating in the process.

"The name's 3, Agent 3 to you," she informed them, a confident grin on her face. "The rest of the splatoon got called up as well, they're probably returning from their own missions right now."

"You give that zapfish to us," Ryker bellowed, causing Quinn to laugh.

"Sorry kiddo, but I can't do that. I'd suggest being a bit more careful if I were you. You never know when the octarians are going to strike next…"

The girl trailed off as she glanced at a digital watch strapped onto her wrist.

"Ah, but I do believe I've spoken for too long," she announced, mostly to herself. "I have a zapfish to return, and I don't want security to catch me. I'd recommend getting out of here - they'll be arriving in about ten minutes. Ciao."

Before any of the four boys could react or get a word in edgewise, the special agent shifted into a squid and super jumped away. Her teal form quickly sailed out of view, leaving them there alone.

"Ryker, I know you're mad, but we don't have a way of following her right now," Dash said as Ryker furiously swore under his breath.

"Save the cursing for later," Liam added as he redistributed their weapons. "We need to get out of here, now. Much as she was annoying, she did have a point - the authorities can't find us here. Especially since we're part of that one group."

"Fine," Ryker spit the words out. "Let's get going."

"You three go on ahead," Zane replied as he picked up his luna blaster neo from the ground. "There's something I need to do first."

Without waiting for an answer, he vaulted over the barriers surrounding the battlefield and ran off into the greenhouse, ducking out of sight. There was something he wanted to see.

* * *

Two hours later, Ryker was pacing back and forth in his living room, trying to ignore Dash and Liam's mindless chatter. His thoughts were focused on what had happened in the Kelp Dome, swirling together in a massive, incoherent twister.

Octarians, alive and well after all these years. Most likely they were thriving too, or at least thriving to the degree that they could infiltrate inkling settlements and steal zapfish. Said zapfish were being retrieved by other inklings, this strange group that apparently called themselves the New Squidbeak Splatoon. Were they trying to emulate the famous squadron from the Great Turf War? Was there going to be another war? Was it already happening? What on earth was going on in his city?

An image of a girl flashed through his mind, and his orange eyes narrowed in anger. She called herself Agent 3, a teal inkling with gray eyes and lightly tanned flesh. That girl had apparently single-handedly stopped an octarian invasion and freed the zapfish, not to mention doing it all in such a way as to make it seem like child's play. Cocky and arrogant to a fault, she was nonetheless a mysterious squid. The gear she wore, though fresher than anything Ryker had ever seen before, was unfamiliar to him, and that archaic weapon she bore had a striking resemblance to a splattershot. She was certainly intriguing, to say the least.

"I'm back," Zane announced as he walked in through the door, a cd held in his hands. "I got last night's footage from the security cameras in the Kelp Dome and then wiped it from their systems. No one's going to be able to tell that the octarians tried to invade last night."

"Good thinking," Ryker said approvingly as he stopped his pacing. "Let's see what we can find out about Agent 3."

Zane nodded as he went to slot the disk into the cd player underneath the television. Or at least, that was what he was planning on doing. A hail of teal ink suddenly came flying through the air right in front of him, causing the yellow tentacled boy to stop dead in his tracks.

"Sorry, kid," a teal inkling girl said from her perch on the windowsill, her roller primed to deliver another attack. "But I can't allow you to view that footage."

Ryker stormed towards her, ready to disarm her when two more teal inklings dropped in through the window. The former had a gun identical to that of Agent's 3, while the latter was holding an unfamiliar charger. He instantly trained it on Ryker's chest, the laser sight showing exactly where any shot would land.

"Make one more move, and I'll splat you," he said, deadly serious.

"...who are you?" Zane asked calmly, shooting a glare at Liam, who was sneaking up on the gun-wielding boy. Without batting an eye his target sen an ink bullet whizzing over the purple inkling's head, inadvertently almost striking Dash.

"The next one goes between your eyes," he warned.

"Now, to business," the teen with the charger said. "I'm Kilo, the teen next to me is Echo, and then the girl on the windowsill is Foxtrot. We're the recon squadron."

"You're working with Agent 3," Dash realized after sizing up their appearances.

"Huh, they're smarter than I thought," Foxtrot replied brightly, absently twirling her roller around. "Agent 3 is our newest recruit for the main splatoon. We needed someone to take over for her predecessors."

"Yeah, it was a pity that Agents 1 and 2 had to quit," Echo muttered under his breath.

"Echo, Foxtrot, we didn't come here to talk," Kilo snapped. "Here's how things are going to work, kids. You're going to hand over that cd in your hands. Got that?"

"Oh yeah?" Liam sounded outraged. "And why should we?"

"Because the three of us can easily knock you out and take it, but we decided to see if you were sensible enough to choose the less violent option," Echo said flatly.

"..." Ryker growled and reached for his hydra splatling, only for Foxtrot to leap off the windowsill and bring her roller down smack dab in front of him. Another inch further and he'd have been splatted.

"I'd really recommend cooperating with us," she said with a slight smirk. "You don't want to see what'll happen if we turn serious."

"...alright…" Zane sighed and began walking towards Kilo, disk in hand.

"Are you crazy? That's the only evidence we have about the invasion! Not to mention it's our only clue as to who Agent 3 is," Liam yelled.

"We don't really have a choice," Zane argued. "Even though we have numbers on our side there isn't any way for us to get out of this situation. At least two of us will be splatted by the time we get our weapons, and once we're all splatted they'll get the cd. Better to just hand it over and save the respawn trip."

"He has a point," Dash muttered. "I say we do this peacefully."

"..." Ryker let out a cry of rage before scowling at the three agents. "...fine, have the stupid cd. It won't change anything in the long run though."

"That's what you think," Foxtrot retorted as Zane handed the disc to Kilo. She then turned and darted over to the window, hopping over the ledge and making her escape. Echo quickly followed suit, the pair vanishing from sight. Kilo backed towards the window as well, keeping an eye on the four boys.

"Nice doing business with you," he said with a smirk. "Keep your noses out of any business concerning us or the octarians. Otherwise, we'll be back, and next time we won't be so lenient."

With those parting remarks, he jumped out of the window, falling towards the ground. Liam ran over to the window, just in time to see the trio super jump away. He sighed before looking back at his friends. Zane appeared frustrated, Ryker was raging as usual, and Dash seemed a bit unnerved at the events that had recently transpired.

"Great...now we're back at square one," Zane sighed.

"Not exactly…" Dash shook his head. "I was awake in the Kelp Dome, so I saw Agent 3 more than you did."

"What?" Ryker sounded shocked. "Why didn't you tell us that before?"

"...we were kind of busy with those intruders…" The light blue inkling sighed and shook his head. "You'll never guess who Agent 3 is, though."

"Spare us the theatrics and tell us," Liam requested.

"Okay, okay, chill. It's Quinn."

"No." Ryker stubbornly shook his head. "No way that rookie is some kind of a wannabe secret agent."

"That wannabe secret agent apparently stopped an entire invasion," Zane muttered dryly. "I don't think she's some kind of wannabe."

"Doesn't matter! That coward ran off, remember?"

"Do you really believe that," Dash asked coldly. "Wake up, Ryker. Quinn's not a coward. If she was, she wouldn't have even shown up."

"I mean, she did sit on the spawn point for three hours rather than face us…" Liam muttered.

"Yes, but if she was going to run away, she would've done it during that time period," his friend argued back. "That was when it seemed like she'd never be able to make any sort of comeback."

"Acting like this is ridiculous," Dash added. "This is a new low, even for you."

Dead silence filled the air for a few moments. Liam and Zane's mouths had dropped open in surprise, shocked that the normally easy-going inkling had dared to speak that harshly to Ryker. They may have been his friend, but at the same time, he was still extremely volatile and prone to outbursts. Such harsh words could easily send him flying into a rage. The orange inkling stood there mutely, an angry look quickly crossing over his face even though he was stunned into silence. Dash stubbornly climbed to his feet, ignoring the others and walking towards the door.

"I don't care what you chose to believe," he said softly. "But I'd have to be a fool to not recognize her voice."

With that parting statement, he stormed out of the apartment, slamming the door behind him.

* * *

Quinn sighed as she lay on her bed, happy to be off of her feet after the long night. The girl had returned the zapfish to Cap'n Cuttlefish before retiring to her apartment for a hard-earned rest. However, try as she might, her mind refused to stop running a million miles a minute, consumed with analyzing the events of the last day.

The rumble had been perhaps one of the most challenging things that had ever happened in her entire life, arguably just as difficult if not more challenging than her fight with the Octostomp. Her new gear and agent training had served her well, but even with that Quinn knew that there was never a chance of her winning. Ryker's crew was simply too experienced, and all the skills she had picked up while fighting octarians could only take her so far. At the end of the night she was outnumbered, outgunned, and unlike in Octo Valley, she couldn't knock her opponents out.

It had been a one-sided fight, and that was before the octarians had come. Quinn was well aware that they had been the ones to steal the zapfish, but never had she dreamed that they would be so bold as to try and take over one of the turf war arenas. It was a crazy, unexpected plot, but it had almost worked. That was the terrifying part. If it hadn't been for the rumble, she wouldn't have even been aware of the invasion until it was perhaps too late. Odette also wouldn't be as overconfident next time, that was something the black tentacled inkling was sure about.

A knock on the door abruptly dragged Quinn out of her thoughts and, with a groan, the teenager got out of bed. She hadn't gotten a ton of sleep, but it was better than nothing.

"Just a moment," she yelled as she threw on some clothes. With a sigh she hurried to the door, opening it up to reveal a grumpy looking light blue inkling. "Oh hi, Dash. What's up?"

"Nothing," he grumbled, causing Quinn to laugh.

"What's wrong? And don't tell me it's nothing because you aren't normally this grumpy."

"...Ryker was calling you a coward and I kind of yelled at him," Dash admitted with a sigh. "Which reminds me, I owe you a thank you."

"A thank you for what?" Quinn sounded absolutely mystified. Dash shot her a knowing look, but the girl's expression didn't change.

"For last night," he replied in a grateful tone of voice. "For saving my friends and I from the octarians after they invaded the Kelp Dome. I didn't know you were part of a group retrieving the zapfish."

Quinn blinked a few times before looking away, panic filling her mind. How did he find her out? Did he actually find her out, or was he just bluffing? Either way, she couldn't exactly tell him about what she was doing with the Squidbeak Splatoon - Cap'n Cuttlefish would have her hide.

"Dash...I say this to you with complete and utter sincerity, but are you sure that's what happened?" She had a very confused look on her face. "Cause I sure didn't know that the octarians were still active, let alone alive. I mean, no one's seen them since the Great Turf War, and that was years ago."

"I know what I saw," Dash insisted. "You were dressed in some pretty fresh gear and you pressed this crazy looking weapon to the back of this one octoling's head. Remember, she told you to kill her and you refused before letting them go so it wouldn't cause a mass panic in the city. And then after they were gone you climbed up to the zapfish and-"

Quinn interrupted him with a bitter laugh.

"Ryker was right," she informed him. "Dash, I'm not some brave secret agent fighting the octarians, I am a coward...at least somewhat of one. I ran off in a blind panic when I saw those strange aircrafts flying overhead. I know you think that it's me, but after I cut my losses at the Kelp Dome I went home to catch a few z's."

"But she had your voice! I'd recognize it anywhere!"

"For all we know that girl could just be a guy with extremely long tentacles," Quinn sighed and pulled out her laptop. "Look, I'll prove it wasn't me. Here's security footage of me returning to the building last night at 4:30, about twenty minutes after I fled the rumble."

Dash visibly deflated as he watched the footage. Sure enough, he could see a black tentacled inkling walking into the lobby early in the morning on the screen. Quinn had been telling the truth, which meant that whoever had been fighting off the octarians hadn't been his friend.

"Look, I appreciate you sticking up for me, but I wasn't fighting the octarians last night," his friend said gently as she put the laptop away. "Being a secret agent would be fun and all that, but whoever that inkling was it wasn't me."

"I guess so," Dash sighed and shook his head. "I still stand by what I said though. You aren't a coward."

"Hmm...anyway, did you come here just to see if I was that mysterious secret agent?"

"Nah, I needed to get away from Ryker before one of us snapped the other's neck," the light blue inkling replied nonchalantly as the doorbell rang. The pair looked at each other in confusion before Quinn walked over and opened it. Langston was standing there behind it, a worried look on his face.

"Oh thank goodness," he muttered. "I've been worried that Ryker had hurt you somehow all night."

"...you were worried about me?" Quinn asked blankly, her face turning just the tiniest bit red. Langston hesitantly nodded, causing the girl to smile a bit. "Aw, that's sweet of you. I'm just fine, though! Almost won, too!"

She would have said more, but her phone suddenly rang, a loud burst of noise that caused all three of them to jump. Quinn laughed nervously before pulling out the device.

"Eh heh...sorry about that," she said. "Excuse me for a moment."

With that the black tentacled inkling walked into another room, shutting the door behind her. Dash and Langston looked at each other before the former stealthily crept over to the doorway and pressed his ear against it.

"What are you doing?" Langston sounded scandalized by his friend's actions.

"What does it look like? I'm listening," he retorted. "Look, last night octarians invaded during the rumble, and a weird agent stopped them. I think it was Quinn."

"Uh...wait what?" Langston joined Dash by the door. "You're joking."

"No, I'm not, now hush."

"...yeah, but that got taken care of." Quinn's muffled voice floated through the door. "I handled it myself...wait what? You're kidding there's no way they'd do that in the middle of the day. That's crazy...You sure that the recon squad didn't goof the time up?"

"Bucko this is serious! Get your little heiny over here!" This shout was extremely loud, and a clatter echoed in the air a moment later - probably the sound of Quinn dropping her phone.

"Okay okay, geez, I'll be there soon." There was a soft click and then footsteps moving towards the door. Langston and Dash looked at each other in a panic before darting away from the door, tripping over their feet to get away. Scrambling for the couch, the pair plopped down on it right as Quinn opened up the door. She had a frustrated and irritated look adorning her face, clearly displaying that she wasn't happy with how the phone call went.

"I hate to be a rude host, but something important came up that requires my immediate attention," the black tentacled inkling explained. "Sorry to run out on you two. Perhaps we can hang out another time?"

"Oh you don't have to apologize," Langston said quickly. "I mean emergencies happen all the time."

"Yeah, it's no problem at all," Dash echoed, rising to his feet and following Quinn towards the doorway. "Good luck with whatever problem you're having."

"Thanks, I'll see you guys later then." Quinn locked up her apartment before waving goodbye to the boys and darting off. She took the stairs two at a time, skipping the last flight completely in her haste. The doors were thrown open and she burst out into the street, sprinting for the plaza. It soon came into view, and with a quick look around the teenager slipped through the grate and vanished into the darkness below. The trip through the sewers was just as long and stinky as the girl remembered. Sighing, she climbed out of the tunnels and emerged into the light-filled Octo Valley.

"Agent 3 reporting in sir," she announced, snapping to attention. Cap'n Cuttlefish briefly saluted in return before ordering the teen to stand down and go get suited up. Nodding, Quinn retreated into the shack, pulling her weapons and gear off the shelf. She then ducked behind a partition and quickly began getting changed even as the sounds of footsteps filled the air outside.

"We're back, boss!" An oddly familiar voice cut through the air. "The scouting mission was a success, and we planted the armor just like you asked us too."

"Glad you're all safe, buckos," their leader replied. "Agent 3's just getting suited up and then you all will be heading out to deal with the octostriker."

"Understood, sir," another strangely familiar voice, masculine in nature, said.

"I'm locked and loaded, Cap'n," Quinn announced as she walked out of the shack, only to freeze in shock. Three inklings stood next to her leader, all dressed in hero suits like hers. The dark blue boy held a vicious looking charger, while the green tentacled boy had a gun identical to the one in Quinn's hands. The only girl of the group, who had orange tentacles, carried a roller. However, that wasn't what shocked Quinn, it was the fact that she recognized her colleagues.

"Yuesi? Flora? Fabio?" As each of their names broke the still air, the respective inkling nodded. "What are the three of you doing here?"

* * *

 **And that's the double update! I'm hoping you all enjoyed it.**

 **So I'm sure some people are wondering about Yusei, Flora, and Fabio's agent names. They actually come from the NATO phonetic alphabet. Kilo is K, Echo is E, and Foxtrot is F. I couldn't do numbers or greek letters, and plain letters were kind of boring.**

 **Anyways, reviews and comments are always appreciated!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

"So let me get this straight," Quinn said as the quartet ran through Octo Valley. "The three of you have been working for Cap'n Cuttlefish for the past year or so, before the zapfish crisis? And now you've been sneaking into octarian territory and mapping the place out on a regular basis?"

"Yeah, that's the seacliff notes version of it at any rate," Fabio admitted as they came to a stop in front of the kettle.

"Alright, to business," Yusei announced as they came to a stop at the ancient transportation device. "We're going up against an octostriker. Stay hidden as much as possible. If it spots you, that thing is going to send an inkstrike your way."

"But wait, if it's heading for Inkopolis, why are we here at the kettles?" Quinn looked and sounded very confused. It didn't make sense to the girl why they wouldn't just go back through the sewers to confront the invading force.

"The octarians sent ground troops ahead to clear the way for the octostriker," Yusei explained. "We'll use the kettle network to access the front lines and work our way forward."

"It's about twenty kliks south of Inkopolis right now, but they're moving fast," Fabio added.

"Let's talk later," Flora piped up. "Say, after we've kicked some octarian butt! Last one there is a rotten squid!"

"Agreed," their leader said, taking charge of the operation. "Let's move out."

With that, the blue tentacled inkling slipped into the kettle. The other three saluted him, and then one by one they followed, vanishing in a puff of steam. Traversing the kettle network took more time than normal, and when they finally emerged it was into a gloomy afternoon. Clouds blotted out the sun and a chilly wind nipped at their faces. The place was abandoned, save for the trademark fuchsia ink of the octarian forces. Nearby they could see Urchin Underpass, and beyond that was a large dot in the sky. That had to have been the octarian airship. Yusei led the group forward, pausing underneath the bridge to climb up the tresses and survey the area before them.

"There seems to be a decent amount of troops up ahead," he called down. "But I don't see any evidence of octolings. Looks like it's mostly grunts, save for the octostriker."

"Makes sense," Quinn replied. "I took out a fair number of them last night. They're probably still incapacitated."

"Hey boss," Flora interrupted, twirling her roller absently. "Can we get this show on the road already?"

"Yeah, just give me a second." The inkling hopped down and landed in front of Quinn. "Has the Cap'n taught you how to use a seeker yet?"

"Um...nope." Fabio sighed at that remark.

"Of course he forgot to…" the green inkling muttered. Yusei ignored him and pulled out a crazy looking bomb.

"This is a seeker," the older teen informed Quinn. "You arm it just like you would a splat bomb. However, instead of exploding right away it travels along the ground and homes in on enemies. It takes up a lot of ink, but more importantly, it leaves a trail for you to swim in. That'll help you avoid catching the octostriker's attention."

The three more experienced agents all chipped in to donate a few seekers to the girl, and soon she had a proper arsenal of them. After that, the quartet shifted to a uniform yellow color and began making their way towards the battlegrounds.

"What's the plan anyway?"

"Kilo and I will find some high places to cover you guys," Flora explained in response to Quinn's question. "If things get messy, I'll jump in to provide melee support. You'll be paired up with Echo, Agent 3. Make sure you both hide as much as possible to avoid attention, but if you do get spotted get out of there, fast."

"There's a cooldown time between the inkstrikes," Fabio added. "It's about five minutes in length. During that time we can move around freely. Just be careful, alright?"

"Talk later," Yusei barked, slipping into the role of a commander. "Move, now, before that octostriker sees us."

Flora nodded before jumping towards a tree nearby, scrambling up the branches with a cat-like ease. Yusei inked a trail up a small concrete wall and snapped off a flurry of half charged shots to create a hiding place. As for the pair on the ground, they tossed out seekers and dove into the ink trails the motorized explosives left behind. Not a moment too soon, as the group had attracted the attention of the octostriker. It jolted upright and launched an inkstrike before falling back into a prone position, stunned. The large inksplosive sailed through the air, arching towards the ground. It blossomed to life just as Fabio and Quinn reached cover, the deep fuchsia ink tornado coating the ground where the group had been standing moments earlier. Fabio heaved a sigh of relief before looking over at Quinn, who was staring at the point of impact in shock.

"No way…" she murmured. "That thing's got some serious power."

"Even more reason to not be on the receiving end of that thing," he replied. "Let's go, we've got five minutes before another one is heading our way.

"Right!" Quinn sprang towards an unsuspecting octotrooper and splatted it with ease before moving on to another target. Her partner recklessly charged at another clump of enemies and they too soon fell victim to the highly trained inkling. Two hidden twintentacle octotroopers emerged from the depths of the ink behind him, ready to fire, but Flora hopped out of the tree, roller raised high above her head.

"Surprise!" With a somewhat crazed laugh she brought it down on the two octotroopers, sending them flying. They hit the wall that Yusei was standing on and sunk down to the ground, out cold. The oldest agent himself was sniping the octoballs out of the air as they tried to launch an aerial attack on the intruders.

"Twenty seconds," he called out before taking out the last target and slipping back into the ink. The three agents on the ground dove into the yellow ink and vanished from sight, holding still. Moments later, the octostriker awoke from its stupor and sat up in its murky ink pool. Beady eyes searched the ground below for its prey, a deep growl escaping its throat. None of the inklings moved, however, and after a while the octostriker relaxed.

Fabio slid back into his humanoid form, a fully armed seeker already in his hands. The boy threw his weapon to the ground, and it began to beep and whirr as it snaked its way across the open area. Fabio gestured for the two girls to swim after it, tracking the ripples as they did so to make sure they got a safe distance away. He himself remained out in the open, waiting. With a roar the octostriker noticed him and fired again, the recoil stunning the beast. Fabio dove into the ink and began swimming with all his strength, barely outrunning the deadly weapon. Quinn and Flora sprang out of the ink and began splatting more troops. High above their sniper emerged into the open, snagging the few sneaking up on the girls. Catching his breath, Fabio splatted the last octotrooper in the area.

"All clear," he radioed, and soon Yusei joined them on the ground. Flora frowned and smacked her brother on the back of his shoulder.

"Oi, don't be so reckless," she scolded before grinning. "That's my job around here."

Fabio groaned and muttered an apology under his breath. The quartet ran around the corner, diving back into their own ink as the octostriker fired off another shot.

* * *

High above, Odette frowned as she stood on the airship, watching as the four inklings easily splatted her troops. She was already in a bad mood from the night before, having faced severe discipline for failure. King Octavio had forced her to babysit the octostriker instead of resting up from her mission. It was a small price to pay, though, considering that others had been sent to work in the factories for much lesser failures.

The agents certainly knew how to take advantage of the recoil damage that affected the octostriker. It was getting quite annoying, seeing them scurry around on the ground before hiding again.

"Just how stupid is this octostriker," Odette muttered in frustration, glancing over at the mutated octobomber. The fat, lazy oaf was relaxing in his pool of murky ink with hardly a care in the world, causing the elite to sigh in disgust. He was obviously not concerned with taking out the agents. Shaking her head, Odette turned to look over at her other troops. Each one was armed with a single inkstrike, the large missiles making the octotroopers look comically small. Sure, the recoil would knock them all out - that had been why the octostrikers had been engineered to be so large, so that they were more than a one-shot weapon - but if it stopped the inklings it would be a small price to pay.

"Fire on my mark," she ordered them. The twelve soldiers saluted before beginning to prepare their oversized weapons. Odette's eyes drifted back towards the octostriker, waiting. Suddenly, like a lightning bolt, he shot upright, launching an inkstrike with a roar. Down below on the ground, the four inklings began to scatter, causing the octoling to smirk.

"Fire."

* * *

Down on the ground, the inkling squadron had entered a long corridor with uninkable walls. The quartet would have progressed down it rather quickly, but the octostriker had cornered them with another inkstrike. All of them were currently plastering themselves against the back wall, the missile just barely grazing them. It was a close call, and Quinn felt her hearts hesitate slightly in their triple beat pattern.

"...that was really close," she mumbled.

"Hey, we aren't dead yet," Flora jested in response before swinging her roller onto the ground. The girl charged forwards, inking a wide path on the ground. The others shrugged before following her, only to freeze as another inkstrike landed just behind them. Quinn and Yusei, who were bringing up the rear, barely dodged it. After that, well, things went south rather quickly.

First one, then another, and yet another inkstrike began to rain down from the sky. All thought of inking turf abandoned, the group ran through the corridor. They were just barely remaining ahead of the deadly weapons, something that didn't sit well with more than one of the agents.

"How," Fabio gasped out, "is this possible?"

"Talk later," Yusei yelled. "Move, now!"

And move they did, running as fast as possible. Desperately they dodged crumbling piles of rubble the inkstrikes had left strewn about. Quinn stumbled a bit over one such pile, though Yusei quickly steadied her. It was, for all intents and purposes, a race against time, and in the end, that fall cost her. Yusei and the others just managed to clear the inkstrikes' blast radius. Their young friend was not as lucky, feeling almost the full force of one of the missiles. Her hero suit managed to protect her from being splatted, but the fuschia ink still permeated her body. Falling to the ground, the girl let out a pain-wracked scream until she was suddenly silenced by Flora slamming a hand over her mouth.

"Oi, not so loud," she hissed.

"Be gentler, she just got hit with-"

"I know what she just got hit with," Flora snapped, interrupting her brother. "But we can't get caught."

"You two go on ahead and clear the next area," Yusei ordered, crouching down next to Quinn. "I'll stay here with Quinn."

"Got it." The siblings stood up and broke into a steady trot, vanishing around the corner. Yusei pulled a few undamaged crates over and made a makeshift shelter for the pair, shielding them from the eyes of the octostriker. He then turned his attention to Quinn. The girl was curled up in a ball, biting down on one of her wrists to muffle the cries of pain. Hurriedly the teen inked the ground beneath her with his charger and began trying to get the girl to submerge herself in it.

"Come on, 3. You have to turn into a squid, it'll help."

"...i-it hurts…"

"I know it hurts, but you have to do this. We're in the middle of a mission and nowhere near a place you can get medical treatment."

"B-but….agh!"

"3," Yusei ordered firmly. "Squid form, now. That's a direct order."

Quinn sniffled a bit but slowly shifted into a squid, wincing in pain from all the foreign ink corrupting her body. Gradually the teen disappeared into the yellow ink on the ground, causing Yusei to heave a sigh of relief. He hadn't liked yelling at Quinn, especially in the condition she was in, but they were running out of time.

"Hey Kilo," Flora's voice said over the radio. "We've almost got this next area cleared. How're you and 3 doing?"

"I've got 3 flushing the octarian ink from her system," he reported. "I don't know what condition she's going to be in."

The ink before him began to bubble slightly, wisps of purple slowly leeching out of it. A few minutes passed, and then Quinn emerged from the depths. Quickly the girl changed back into her humanoid form, resting against one of the crates. She still had a dazed, painful look in her eyes, but appeared to be breathing easier.

"How're you doing?"

"I feel like I've been through hell…" she mumbled. "Those missiles are even worse than the ones in turf war…"

"Yeah, I know," Yusei sighed. "But we have to keep moving. I'll get the twins to act as bait so that octostriker goes after them. That way we'll be able to get out of here."

He quickly relayed those orders to the twins, and moments later the sounds of an inkstrike flying through the air could be heard. Soon the trademark funnel cloud swirled into the sky, causing Yusei to grin.

"Let's go," he said before ducking out of the makeshift shelter. Quinn winced but followed him, wobbling a bit as she stood up. Her left leg suddenly gave out, causing her to stumble and fall to the ground.

"Ugh…ow…" She sat up and looked down at her leg, which was slightly swollen. "Um...got a problem here."

"Hm…" The older teen frowned and began examining it. "Well, I'm no doctor but it looks like you sprained something…stick to squid form for now. You're not going to be able to move very fast with that ankle of yours.

"Right...sorry…" Quinn shifted into a sorry looking yellow squid and scooted towards one of the pools of yellow ink. Her squad leader joined the girl a moment later, and the two of them began swimming forward to catch up to their teammates. They found them taking on a platoon of twintentacle octotroopers, caught up in a firestorm of fuschia and yellow ink. Flora was cackling like mad as she ran through a large group of them, twirling and bashing her roller with deadly proficiency. Several unconscious bodies were left in her wake. Her brother was more methodical, taking out octarians with pinpoint accuracy. Both of them had a fair amount of fuschia ink on them, but they were quickly ducking in and out of their ink to take care of the damage.

"Four...three...two...one...get in the ink, now!" Fabio dove into the yellow substance and vanished, swimming away. Flora took out one last octotrooper and then copied her brother. Another inkstrike came crashing down moments later, causing Quinn to flinch. It was a bit too close for her comfort, especially after what had happened earlier.

"How much longer until we get to the octostriker anyway," she mumbled, cursing the tremor in her voice.

"It should be just up ahead," Yusei replied as he ducked out of the ink to pick off two octoballs that were trying to sneak up on Fabio. "Should be smooth sailing on the ground at this point. They'll probably keep the rest of their troops up on the airship to guard the octostriker."

"What? Why would they do that?"

"Octostrikers are genetically modified octobombers," Fabio explained, using a seeker to ink a path forward for Quinn. "It's huge, but it can't fly for long periods of time. That's why it hangs out on an octarian aircraft. It also doesn't have any real means of protecting itself after it fires, so they need soldiers to guard it."

"Launchpad ahead," Flora suddenly called out. "Who's ready to kick some octarian butt?"

* * *

High above the area, resting comfortably on a building's rooftop, the most unusual of duos watched as the four agents began to make the final climb towards the launchpad. They were not unusual because of their gear which consisted of a set of shoes similar to hero runners, a face mic with a half visor covering one eye, and some armor similar to the kind octolings wore. Nor were they unusual because of their weapons - a kelp splatterscope and an octobrush nouveau. No, they were odd due to the fact that one was an inkling, and the other was an octoling.

"Look, there he is," the octoling exclaimed, pointing at Fabio excitedly. The inkling beside her groaned and rolled her eyes, more interested in observing Yusei. She frowned in confusion, however, when a fourth inkling rose up from their yellow ink, limping across a grated area. Suddenly an inkstrike fell from the sky, causing the agents to scatter. It was clear that this newcomer wasn't expecting it to happen, for she let out a yelp. The yellow hue slipped from her tentacles briefly in her fright, being replaced temporarily by a black one.

"No way, she's got black tentacles like you! The octoling elbowed her companion eagerly, gesturing to the new agent. "There's more like you out there Nyx! You're not the only one of your kind!"

"How many times do I have to remind you Sigma?" Nyx shook her head a frustrated tone in her voice. "It's Alpha. And I could care less if I'm the only one of my kind. She could have orange tentacles with pink plaid stripes for all I care. They have the situation under control, let's head back and rendezvous with Omega."

Grumbling under her breath, Nyx walked off across the rooftop. She reached the edge and lightly leaped up to the next one, starting the long trip back to the shore. Omega would be waiting there with a boat for them to take back to home base. Sigma watched her go for a long moment before sighing.

"Well, she woke up on the wrong side of the bed today," she muttered before glancing down at the four inklings below. "Welp, guess I've gotta go with lil' miss grumpyfins. But fear not! We shall be back!"

With a wink and a cheery salute in the general distance of the agents - not that any of them saw it, she broke into a run, dashing after the distant form of Nyx.

* * *

Quinn frowned as she studied the airship from below, a bit worried at how well her leg was holding up. The ship didn't seem to be made out of an inkable material, meaning she'd have to stay in her humanoid form rather than swimming everywhere. The thought of having to put weight on her injured leg for long periods of time wasn't something she relished, but it was something she had to do. With a grim look, the girl swam over to the launchpad, joined silently by Yusei and the twins. As one they tensed up, launching into the air towards the flying saucer. A quartet of thunks heralded their arrival, and with that, they suddenly found themselves in a chaotic battlefield.

Octarian troops, thankfully appearing to be of the lower ranks, were stationed in four places around the circular shaped ship. Their guns were held at the ready, and as soon as they saw the inklings they opened fire. The octostriker, on the other hand, had been much more relaxed, lazing about in his pool of murky magenta ink. Once he realized that there were intruders on the ship, though, it let out a roar and jerked upright, flying into the air. The hulking beast wobbled a bit as he tried to steady himself, struggling to stay above the ground. Most unfortunate of all, however, was the fact that Quinn could see Odette standing with the troops, an annoyed scowl on her face.

"Attack," she ordered, and as one the assault started. With no time for the agents to get their bearings, they began dodging the ink bullets that filled the air.

"Echo, cover us," Yusei snapped. "Foxtrot, take care of those octarian troops. Three, you and I have the big guy."

Flora wasted no time smashing her roller over the head of the nearest octarian troop, while Fabio immediately took out the one that was threatening to splat Quinn. She grit her teeth and ran at the octostriker, trying to ignore the immediate agony from her leg. Before she could get too far, however, Odette tackled her to the ground.

"You're not going to get such an easy victory," she hissed, bashing a fist into her face before yanking Quinn upright and ducking behind her. Seconds later a trail of yellow ink slammed into the girl, harmless save for the sting of the impact. Yusei had seen his fellow agent's peril and tried coming to her aid, but Odette had cleverly used Quinn as a shield.

"Darn it…Sorry!"

"I'm fine, Kilo," Quinn yelled. "Focus on the big one in the sky."

Yusei looked torn but eventually nodded and switched his aim to the octostriker, who was getting ready to fire another inkstrike. Charging up a shot, he let it fly. The trail of pressurized ink nabbed the octostriker dead on, causing the beast to growl and fly a good distance away. Scrunching up his face, he suddenly launched an inkstrike towards the sniper, who sprinted away from it. The recoil stunned the mutant octobomber, but it fortunately didn't fall.

Quinn and Odette were still tussling nearby. Quinn's gun had been kicked out of her hand and she was down on the metal airship, though she quickly scrambled to her opponent smirked before opening fire, the black ink splashing off the platform before bullets began to find her target. Searing pain ripped through the girl's body until she had the forethought to drop the yellow hue from her tentacles. Gradually the pain diminished, until finally, it was tolerable.

"Bah, I should have known you'd have some sort of trick up your sleeve," Odette hissed before holstering her octoshot and launching a flying kick at Quinn. It connected with her head, and she sank down to the ground with a groan. The elite followed up on her advantage, landing a few more punches and kicks before locking Quinn in a chokehold.

"Listen up," she snapped. "You won at the Kelp Dome through dumb luck. Your lack of training is pathetic, and you can't stand up to the smooth and well oiled machine that is the octarian army."

"Uh huh," Quinn coughed out. "That must be why I've taken back how many zapfish?"

"We underestimated you. I see now that even without any professional training you are a threat."

"Let's go back to you guys not viewing me as a threat," the agent suggested. "That was great."

"Insolent inkling!" Odette drew back to punch her in the face, only for Flora to bring the butt end of her roller down on her back.

"Get off of her," she yelled before being backhanded by the angry octoling.

"Where are my troops?"

"All knocked out," Flora smirked, twirling her roller and gesturing to her squadmates. "You seemed to have forgotten that Agent 3 isn't on this mission alone."

Fabio and Yusei were tag-teaming the octostriker, coating it in ink. As the girls looked over, the latter let loose another blast from his charger, further saturating the large soldier. Odette scowled before shoving Flora aside and kicking Quinn full force in the stomach. All the air rushed out of her lungs as the force of the attack sent her rolling down the slightly sloped sides of the airship. She managed to grab onto the edge of the platform before she could go falling to the ground below.

"Pathetic…" Odette sneered before walking over to her, her foot poised over Quinn's hand. "You only had a chance because of our shortsightedness. Never forget that."

The boot came smashing down on her fingers and then she was falling through the air, heading for the ground below.

* * *

 **Well, another chapter down. Hopefully they were as enjoyable as the last nine of them.**

 **Big thanks to Sunny211, BlueTornado3275, and ChiggerD for reviewing.**

 ** _Apparently Grammarly is betraying me if there have been more errors._ I'll go back over the other chapters and edit them again, and I'll keep a sharper eye out for stuff that the proofreading software misses. And I'll also try to take care of the other critiques you had too, Chigger.**

 **Other than that, reviews are gratefully appreciated as always.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

"...is she still alive…"

"Yes, she's still alive, Foxtrot…"

"But that was a long fall…"

"We don't have bones sis. There's nothing to be broken."

"Guys! She fell off a ufo that was flying higher than a three-story building! Why are you not more concerned?"

"Think about it, Foxtrot. Inklings can absorb a lot of force without any problems, like when we super jump. She'd have to fall from a much greater height to do permanent damage."

"I guess...but…"

"Ugh…" Quinn groaned and opened her eyes slowly. She was met with a faceful of black and yellow fabric. For a moment, she was worried something had damaged her vision. It took her a bit to realize that it was someone's hero suit she was staring at. Once the teen came to that realization, she slowly lifted her head and looked around blearily. She could see Flora and Fabio walking in front of her, and directly to her left was a rather familiar set of blue tentacles. Yusei must have been carrying her. They were trekking through the city, fortunately not encountering any of the residents. Darkness stained the air, pricked by stars and the occasional moonbeam that reached through the clouds. A nice light breeze had whipped up, filling the night with a soft whooshing sound.

"Wha' happened…" The girl's words were slurred with the haziness of sleep, but they were enough to make the others realize she was awake.

"Three! Oh, thank cod, I was so worried," Flora exclaimed loudly.

"Shh, not so loud," Fabio hissed, shushing her. "We're in a civilian area."

"We are?" Quinn blinked in confusion before groaning and putting her head back down. "Ugh...I feel awful…"

"That's understandable," Yusei replied. "You did have quite the long fall, plus all your injuries from the inkstrike earlier."

"Kilo and I took out the octostriker right after you fell," Fabio explained, glancing over at their injured comrade. "Once it was gone the octarians retreated and we began looking for you. Flora found you in a pool of ink, you probably hit it in squid form. You're really lucky it was there, you could have been hurt a lot worse."

"Feels like it…"

"Relax, Three, we'll be at the boss's shack in no time, and then we can get you all checked out for any problems."

"Echo, Foxtrot, Three, quiet," Yusei ordered suddenly as they came to a halt in one of the alleyways right near the plaza. "There's someone there."

"Might just be Spyke."

"No way bro, that doesn't sound like an urchin."

"What part of quiet," their leader asked irritably, "don't you two get?"

"Sorry Kilo…"

"Whoops, my bad boss."

Quinn rolled her eyes, listening to the vague sounds of conversation floating down the alley. It wasn't distinct enough for her to be able to make out specific words. Flora was right, though, in saying that it didn't sound like Spyke. His unique accent wasn't audible. Fabio snuck forward, edging towards the mouth of the pathway. The green tentacled inkling peaked around the corner, trying to see who was there. After a few minutes of spying, the boy retreated back to the group.

"It's five or six inklings," he reported. "They're hanging around the entrance to the House."

"Great…" Yusei sighed before looking at the twins. "Can you sneak around behind them and cause some kind of distraction while I get Quinn to the sewers?"

"Yeah, shouldn't be too hard. Let's go, bro."

Flora winked before scaling a nearby building with a super jump. Her brother rolled his eyes and shook his head before following the girl, muttering something about her recklessness under his breath. Once they were gone, Yusei advanced to the head of the alley, peaking out.

"Go into your squid form now," he ordered. "That way it'll be easy to get into the sewers. There won't be time for us take the grate off like I had originally planned."

"Why didn't we just take the kettle network?" Quinn shifted into a small black squid as she asked her question. "It would've been faster."

"You were out cold. We had no way to get you into your squid form so we could take that path."

"Oh yeah…"

"Hey Kilo," Fabio suddenly said over the radio. "Don't freak out, but in a second you're going to hear a very loud-"

"Aieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

"...scream…" Fabio sighed, the two agents almost able to hear the eye-roll that surely accompanied his statement. "You might want to go before the plaza gets flooded with authorities."

"Roger. Tell Foxtrot I'll be speaking to her about the importance of subtly when she gets back." Yusei also sighed before slipping into his squid form. Poking his head out around the corner, he could just see the group of inklings over by the house leaving to investigate the scream. Once the coast was clear he signaled Quinn and the two slipped out of the alley. They snuck along the ground slowly, inching over to the grate. Once they arrived the pair slipped through the metal mesh and dropped into the familiar sewers below.

"Can't believe Foxtrot would be so reckless," Yusei muttered as he returned to his humanoid form. "Actually, wait, I can. Out of all of us, she would be the one most likely to do something like that."

"I mean, it worked," Quinn pointed out as she also changed forms. The girl stood up carefully, leaning on the wall to see how much weight she could put on her injured leg. It certainly hurt a lot, but the limb held, which was a good sign. Seeing this, Yusei walked over and looped one of her arms around his shoulder, helping the girl walk.

The trip back to Octo Valley was a slow one, dragging out for much longer than normal due to Quinn's injury. It was no surprise, then, that when Yusei helped the black tentacled agent through the grate outside Cuttlefish's shack that Flora and Fabio were already waiting for them. They had changed out of their agent gear and back into normal clothing, weapons leaning up against the side of the shack. Yusei handed Quinn off to Fabio before beckoning Flora to follow him. With a self-satisfied grin, the teen did so, the pair heading behind a rock. Soon the sounds of quiet, but heated, conversation could be heard. It was obvious that the leader of the recon squad was lecturing the roller user on tactics.

"Alright, let's see how badly you got hurt," he said, helping her sit down on a bench and pulling off her shoe. "Hm...definitely pretty swollen. Can you put weight on this and move it?"

"Yeah, hurts like crazy though," she replied with a wince. At her fellow agent's prompting, she quickly demonstrated the injured joint's range of motion, a pained grimace on her face. After a few more minutes of examining, Fabio eventually came to the determination that it had been sprained. Grabbing a roll of bandages the teen quickly wrapped it up securely before moving on to the teenager's other injuries.

"Fortunately nothing seems to be too serious," he muttered as he worked. "I'd say don't do turf wars or agent duties for a few weeks so things have time to heal."

"What?"

"None of it for at least three weeks," Fabio repeated firmly. "Understood?"

"Yes Echo…"

* * *

"Remind me why I have to go again?" Nyx sighed as she looked around their headquarters. After the reconnaissance mission to see if they needed to step in the girl had returned to base with her partner. The other half of their group, an octoling named Sebastian and an inkling named Kai - better known as Agents Delta and Omega - were there as well. Currently, they were trying to plan their next move.

"It's simple Nyx," Amira replied with a grin on her face. "You're the least recognizable out of all of us. I mean, Seabass and I are octolings, we can't just go waltzing in there, right bro?"

"...It's Sebastian," the bronze tentacled male muttered in frustration. "But she is right. Either of us could be killed at a moment's notice. There's a reason why being banished to the surface is a punishment in octarian society."

"Yeah," his sister said with a nod. "And Kai is way too recognizable, especially to all your old friends in that special government group you were in."

"The House of Hundred," Kai supplied from his position by the fire. He was busy cleaning fish for that night's dinner.

"Yeah, that place. But you, Nyx. You're just what we need! Slap some new gear on and voila! You could be any other average inkling! Then after that, all you have to do is walk up to your fellow squids and be like 'yo wassup my homies, y'all wanna do some turfing' and then boom! You've successfully infiltrated inkling society!"

"...people don't talk like that," Nyx scoffed. "And even if they did, I wouldn't. Besides, it's not that simple. Have you forgotten that I am part squidling? Neither black tentacles nor webbing between said tentacles and spikes on them are normal."

"You could wear a hat, love," Kai suggested. Sebastian sighed and began fiddling with his pencil.

"I understand your concerns, Nyx," he said softly. "But we need someone in Inkopolis to keep an eye on the octarians. They've become much more active, and there's a very real possibility that they could try to launch more invasions similar to the events in the Kelp Dome and with the octostriker. My younger sister and I are unable to go because of the fact that we're octolings. Between you and Kai, you have shown to be less reckless and more of a strategist. You're our best bet for staying in the city without arousing suspicion."

"It won't be all bad, love," Kai said reassuringly as a torrent of foul curses spewed from his fiance's mouth. "I'll pop by to visit you often. And you never know, you might make some new friends."

"I don't make friends, they end up finding me," the black tentacled agent muttered before letting out a frustrated sigh. "Fine. What's my cover, and when do I leave?"

"You'll be posing as a newcomer," Sebastian explained as he began typing away on his laptop. "An average, forgettable girl who's moving to Inkopolis from another city. Make sure you don't draw any unnecessary attention to yourself. But since it's you we're talking about, that's not going to be a problem, is it?"

"You're avoiding my other question," his friend said as she perused the random pieces of gear they had available. After much consideration, she chose a pair of punk cherries, a zink layered ls, and a streetstyle cap. Quickly the girl stepped into one of the closed-off changing rooms and soon emerged donning her new gear.

"Ah, right, how careless of me," the octoling laughed. "You're leaving today. Kai's got the boat ready to go once you're all packed?"

"I do?" Kai paled and dropped the fish before hustling out the door. "I knew I had forgotten something."

"..." Nyx sighed and tied her tentacles up before shoving the cap on her head. "Sometimes I wonder how I ended up becoming engaged to him…"

"Oh, that's an easy one," Amira giggled. "It's love."

Nyx rolled her eyes before grabbing her kelp splatterscope and a few extra pieces of gear. She then bid farewell to the pair of siblings and vanished out the door, heading for the dock they'd built.

The trip to Inkopolis took about an hour and a half, most of which was spent with Nyx quietly seething over having to go undercover. Kai wisely chose not to say too much to her, having learned over the years that when Nyx got into a mood like this it was best to leave her alone. He did, however, manage to strike up a small bit of conversation with her before they reached the shore. That came to an end upon their arrival, however, and soon Nyx was alone, standing on the shore.

"Well, didn't think I'd be living here again so soon," the girl muttered as she began trudging towards the tall tower in the distance. "First things first...I need to find a place to live…"

* * *

"Ha-ha, this new weapon rocks," Quinn yelled as she popped out of some purple ink to take a sniper by surprise. This one was wielding an e-liter 3k and had apparently thought that with it he was unbeatable. Sadly, he appeared to have misjudged how high the girl could throw her suction bombs, and one of the high tech explosives quickly sent his grumpy ghost back to the spawn point.

"Man, this splash-o-matic is the best! It's almost worth having to wait three weeks to play again," she said with a grin, cheekily waving at her opponent's rapidly retreating ghost. Her tentacles had started glowing, and the teenager quickly activated her bomb rush. Smirking, she lobbed a few up around the charger's perch before moving on to cover the ground of Piranha Pit with them. Moments later the charger respawned and jumped to one of the squid beacons he had set up, only to be splatted again when he landed in the veritable minefield.

"Nice work," Mia yelled from across the stage where she was busy whacking a rookie with her carbon roller. The young boy yelped something that suspiciously sounded like "mother" before being splatted. His conqueror had no time to celebrate, however, as another rookie took her out with a combination of his splat bomb and splattershot jr.

"That's for splitting my brother," he yelled before a shot from one of the snipers on Quinn's team took him out. The inkling, who had introduced herself as Koa to the group, was rather proficient with her kelp splatterscope. Piranha Pit wasn't the best place for charger users, as there were too many blind spots that they couldn't keep track of and not a lot of open spaces that they could use to pick off opponents. Koa seemed to be doing quite well. Quinn shot a grin at the girl and launched a thumbs up in her direction, but the older teen was already lining up her next shot. Her younger teammate shrugged and went back to inking turf, narrowly dodging another shot from the sniper on the other team. The yellow-hued boy's face was creased with a frown, and it was obvious he was trying to avenge his earlier splats.

"Oh, so you want to play, huh?" Quinn yelled up to him. "Well, I'm game. Hit me with your best shot!"

The sniper tried to oblige, but Quinn kept dancing back and forth in front of the teen, forcing him to keep adjusting his aim. The yellow laser beam chased the girl, who took a second to focus her attention on the two brothers trying to splat her. A pair of shots from Koa and the other charger on her team took them out. Quinn breathed a sigh of relief before sinking into her ink, swimming towards the mesh platform the e-liter user was standing on. The teen cleverly placed a suction bomb right underneath his feet before darting back out of cover.

"Too bad," she yelled up to him as he reacquired her location and aimed straight at her. "Looks like I win this little game."

"That's what you think," he muttered in reply before shooting her straight in the stomach. The girl burst apart in a halo of yellow ink, her ghost quickly being pulled back to the spawn point on the other side of the map. Her splatter didn't have time to rest on his laurels, though, as not even a second later the suction bomb under his feet blew up. It dealt more than enough damage to splat him, and he soon found himself forced back to the respawn pad for the third time in thirty seconds.

Before either of them could get back into position, the match ended. Koa had gotten the last splat, picking off the more adventurous of the brothers who had ventured back into enemy territory. Judd surveyed the map for a few minutes as the splatted members of each team reformed, before declaring Quinn's team the winner. The girl, along with Mia, celebrated along with the male charger user on their team. Koa remained stoic, only collecting her winnings before leaving. Mia left as well, heading off for another match, leaving Quinn standing there alone.

"Welp, guess I better head home since it's late," she mused, holstering her splash-o-matic. As the black tentacled teen turned to leave, however, a flash of orange caught her eye. It was Ryker, sitting outside one of the restaurants in the plaza. He appeared to be eating an evening meal, and his hydra splatling was sitting on the other chair at his table.

"Is he...taking his weapon out on a dinner date?" Quinn snickered at the thought. "Leave it to Ryker to choose a weapon over an inkling. Ah well, guess it's none of my business."

She almost left, before a sudden thought crossed her mind. Quinn grinned wickedly before pulling out a pair of gloves. Chuckling quietly to herself, the girl began to walk towards the unsuspecting teen. Ryker didn't notice her approach, lost in the fact that he was bored out of his mind. Suddenly something smacked him across the face, quite literally slapping him out of his thoughts. The blow stung mildly, but the wince and pained expression that crossed his face were more from the shock than anything else.

Rubbing his cheek and cursing under his breath, the orange tentacled boy looked up from his plate of food. He was just in time to see Quinn plop down into a chair across from his. She had a large smirk on her face and with a wink, she dropped a pair of gloves d on the table. It was abundantly clear that she was the one behind his sudden and abrupt exit from his daydreams.

"You little punk! How dare you," Ryker snarled, rising to his feet. Quinn laughed before leaning back in her chair.

"Did you know that when the ancient landfish walked the earth, they would slap another person across the face with a gauntlet to indicate that they were challenging them to a duel?"

"Fascinating," the orange tentacled boy replied in a dry and sarcastic tone. "What's that got to do with you coming up and slapping me?"

"...not too bright still. Eh, figures."

"What?"

"Hey, hey, chill," Quinn said with a wave. "We're all frenemies here, right? And I kind of owe you for that mishap in the Kelp Dome anyway, since we got interrupted. Besides, I know you well enough to know that you'd love a chance to beat me in a rumble."

"..." Ryker glared at her a while longer before letting out a frustrated sigh and sinking back down into his chair. "Fine. What is it you want?"

"Three nights from now at Walleye Warehouse," the girl replied. "The entire place is easily accessible to either side. And come alone. That way it's a fair one on one match instead of that joke of a supposedly fair match you planned for the last rumble."

"Come alone? No way." Ryker shook his head.

"You're really going to chicken out because your friends aren't there to back you up?" Quinn let out a laugh. "That's funny. I thought you were strong."

"I-I can crush you any day of the week, rookie," Ryker sneered. "With or without anyone's help."

"Ooh, tough guy eh? Heh, guess it doesn't matter." The younger inkling laughed again before scribbling something down on a napkin and tossing it in front of the orange boy. "That's my number. Call me if you need to cancel. Or if you get too scared, that works too."

"I'm not scared!"

"Yeah, sure you aren't," Quinn smirked before rising to her feet. "See you then, tough guy."

* * *

 **Another chapter down! I'm glad that the writing is going well. My goal is to have this story finished by the end of September, but I don't know if that'll happen given the number of chapters I still have to write and the fact that school starts up in about a month and a half.**

 **A big thanks to BlueTornado3275 for once again reviewing! It means a whole lot to me that you're enjoying the story so much!**

 **And as always, reviews are always welcomed and appreciated!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Ryker frowned as he crept into Walleye Warehouse three nights later, hydra splatling held at the ready. The industrial atmosphere of the place, with all of the cold metal and lack of natural light, made things much more eerie than normal. He was all tensed up, trying to pierce the gloom and see where his opponent was. The male inkling didn't think that Quinn would be so unsporting as to attack him without warning, but then again he didn't think that she'd have the guts to challenge him to a solo rumble either. Frowning, the orange tentacled teen continued to make his way through the warehouse, until suddenly the floor vanished out from underneath him.

"Ugh," he groaned as he hit the floor, his weapon crashing down next to him a moment later.

"You're late," Quinn's voice rang out in the darkness. "I was beginning to wonder if you actually did chicken out."

"Hah, you probably wish I did."

"Nope. Despite your opinion of me, I'm not a coward."

"...where are you anyway?" Ryker looked around, his eyes unable to pierce the gloom.

"Aw, can't see me? Sucks to be you, we're fighting in the dark." The girl laughed, and Ryker could almost picture the grin plastered on her face. He quietly seethed, clenching a hand into a fist.

"Relax, relax, no need to be so blue. It ain't your color."

"That's it!" The hydra splatling user began brazenly storming through the warehouse. "Stop hiding and face me like a man!"

"That's impossible. I'm a girl."

"Why you little...Agh! You know what I meant!"

"I do? I wasn't aware of me being a mind reader. But I'll be nice I guess."

With that, a flashlight flickered on, revealing Quinn's location. She was lounging on the boxes in the center of the battlefield, gun held loosely in her hands. A confident and lazy smirk adorned her face, and she appeared to be totally at ease. This irked Ryker, more than he cared to admit. She should have been terrified of him, quaking in her boots and showing him that same fearful respect a good chunk of Inkopolis showed him.

"Boo," she said with a smirk.

"Hah hah." Ryker rolled his eyes and walked forward. "You got a flashlight for me?"

"Oh, so now you care about things being fair," Quinn taunted.

"Shut up."

"Make me." She grinned and directed the beam from the flashlight over to one of the walls. "The light switch is over there. So, if I win do I get to tell people that you're afraid of the dark?"

"I'm not afraid!" Ryker turned red in anger, storming over to the light switch and flicking it on. The work lights slowly turned on, dimly illuminating the area. It was still hard to see, but at least now the inkling could tell where everything was positioned.

"So you claim," Quinn scoffed in reply.

"I fear nothing," he snarled, charging up his hydra splatling. "Not the darkness, and certainly not you!"

As he spoke, the boy fired, orange ink flying through the air towards Quinn. Quicker than a cat the teen rolled off of her perch, dropping down to take shelter behind the boxes. Her smile grew just a tiny bit wider, the girl relishing the fact that she seemed to have gotten underneath Ryker's skin so quickly.

"What's the matter, are you losing your cool already?"

"Hah, you wish you could rattle me like that." Ryker allowed a smirk to cross his face before tossing at splat bomb at her.

"Why wish when I can see that you are?" A suction bomb was lobbed at him. The explosives collided in midair and fell down to the ground, blowing up moments later. Both combatants ignored them as soon as it became obvious that they weren't going to land anywhere near their opponents, already moving on to their next move. Ryker, having consumed most of his ink supplies, was forced to duck down into some of the orange substance that littered the ground. Quinn, on the other hand, was free to advance. She had just enough ink left in her tank to splat the boy.

"Huh, rather sloppy of you to allow yourself to run out of ink like that," she quipped before laying down some ink to cover turf up. "What a rookie mistake."

Ryker's orange ghost flew towards one of the spawn points, sinking down into the machine. He reformed moments later, an angry snarl on his face.

"I'll show you who's a rookie, punk," he snarled to himself before starting his advance. Orange ink flew from his splatling as the teen made a path towards the middle of the map. Quinn was just barely visible, the light reflecting off of her shiny black tentacles. She was inking the map, not aware of her opponent's presence. The girl apparently wasn't expecting him to be able to respawn so quickly. This would be a foolish mistake, one that Ryker planned on exploiting. With a grin he charged up his weapon, the faint whirring sound emanating from it the only warning that Quinn had. Even with the distance between them, it was easy to see her pale and duck behind cover.

Ryker frowned in annoyance before tilting his weapon up a little, adjusting his aim. Once he was sure that he'd clear the boxes, the orange inkling opened fire. A salvo of ink burst out of his gun, arcing up into the air and coming down on the other side of Quinn's cover. Curiously, though, there was no outraged cry or sounds of the girl being splatted. Thinking he had missed her, the boy tossed a splat bomb over to where she thought she was located. It blew up without hitting anything. Quinn must have swum off somewhere.

"Come out, come out wherever you are." His voice carried a malicious air to it, matching the predatory grin on his face.

"Do I have to?" Quinn's response echoed throughout the warehouse, bouncing off the cold steel walls.

"Get out here so I can splat you."

"Hm...a tempting offer but being splatted isn't my style. How about I splat you instead?"

"Hah," Ryker scoffed. "As if you could even do that."

"Didn't I already splat you once, though?" The voice was growing a bit louder, meaning that the girl was getting closer to his position. "Right back at the beginning of the match."

"...We didn't have a fair start so that one doesn't count."

"Ah, but wasn't it you that attacked first," she mocked. "I'll agree we didn't have a fair start, but that wasn't my fault."

Upon saying this she burst out of her ink right in front of the box he was perched on. A suction bomb was in her hands, the explosive quickly being chucked onto his platform. Ryker groaned and jumped over to the grates on his left, just getting out of the blast radius before Quinn's bomb blew up. Sometimes he really hated how heavy his splatling was - if he was carrying a lighter weapon that didn't impede his movements so much he'd have escaped much more quickly.

Quinn chased after him, black ink bullets flying from her gun. She forced her opponent to back up off the grates and out of range, leaving him hidden in the relative safety of the walled corridor above. It was a smart move from the girl. Yes, she could not get Ryker from her current position, but he also would have a hard time aiming with the walls in his way. If the older inkling wanted to get her, he'd most likely have to venture out into one of the unwalled areas. She'd easily be able to get him with her bombs.

"Blasted rookie," he muttered as he sounds of Quinn inking turf filled the air once more. Risking a peek out from cover, he was met with a bomb tossed his way.

"Nuh-uh, you aren't getting out of there that easily," she taunted as Ryker rapidly backpedaled to avoid being blown up.

"Who says I'm trying to get out? This is a better position for me anyway."

He rolled a splat bomb over the edge, forcing Quinn to retreat a bit. Once she had been forced out of her gun's range the orange inkling was free to advance a few paces. His splatling was already being charged, and once Ryker was out in position he fired. The boy's aim was true and, with an exasperated sigh, Quinn was splatted. A tiny black ghost shot a peeved look in his direction before flying off towards one of the spawn points.

"Yeah, that's right, go back to spawn where you belong," he taunted before jumping down into the main battlefield. He quickly went back to spreading orange ink over the ground, painting over the black ink. It was a bit hard to see it in the dim light, and a few times Ryker ended up getting stuck in the viscous substance.

Quinn respawned a few moments later, taking the time to shake her head and clear it. Despite her taunting, getting splatted hadn't been part of the girl's game plan, and Ryker hadn't held back. There was a mild throbbing from where the ink bullets had hit, but she did her best to ignore it. After all, it wasn't like the teenaged agent was unused to pain. Something minor like this was easy to brush off.

Pushing those thoughts aside, the girl dashed off her respawn pad and began inking the turf to charge up her special. She had a plan, a crazy plan, a foolish plan, but a plan nonetheless. At the very least, she'd be able to scare the ink out of Ryker, so to speak. The thought of that caused Quinn to let out a quiet chuckle, only for a salvo of orange ink to go flying in her direction. Apparently, her opponent was close enough to hear her.

Sure enough, after poking her head out from behind one of the inflatable barriers, she could see Ryker lugging around his hydra splatling in the middle of the map. He appeared to be a bit hesitant to move into what would be considered her territory, choosing instead to remain just past the box that snipers normally perched on. That was probably a smart move on his part, though. A splatling's strength largely depended on keeping any opponents out of their range, and that'd be much harder to do in her territory. Plus, there was the small matter of the higher platform that Quinn was currently hanging out on. All she'd have to do was wait for Ryker to pass her, and she'd easily be able to drop down behind him and take the teenager out.

Now, there were a few options for the girl. She could wait for Ryker to advance then go after him from behind, but he was unlikely to do that. The orange inkling wasn't dumb, after all, despite his fiery temper. Even though she hated to admit it, Ryker was quite the brilliant fighter, certainly better than she was herself. Another option was to simply wait out the remainder of the rumble, but that wasn't her style. Winning on a technicality wasn't really a win, and her long vigil at the Kelp Dome had really only been because of the four on one situation she'd been in. A head-on charge was always an idea - Quinn was much lighter on her feet and faster than the older teen, courtesy of the vast weight difference their weapons had. Doing something like that would be foolish, though, given that her range was a lot shorter than his.

Going for a flanking attack, though, now that was an option that was viable. Leaving Ryker to his devices, for the time being, she hung a right and traversed the upper path until she was hidden from sight by one of the larger metal partitions. Once that was between her and Ryker, she dropped down to the main floor and moved up towards the narrow metal path that lead into the orange inkling's base. So far, everything was going according to plan.

Surprisingly, there wasn't much turf covered back here, and the teen liberally began coating the floor with her own personal hue. Once she had claimed a sufficient amount of ground, the girl turned her attention to sneaking up on Ryker. Surprisingly, though, the splatling user wasn't visible anymore.

"...okay, that's a slight problem," she muttered to herself before heading back to the center. "Seriously, where'd he go?"

"The kelp? What's all this black ink doing over here?"

Ryker's voice suddenly came from the right, causing Quinn to stiffen and dive into her ink. Did he see her? She certainly hoped not, that would certainly put a wrench in her plans. A few tense moments passed before the girl decided that her position hadn't been compromised. The black tentacled inkling slipped out of her ink and started hunting for Ryker again. A peek around the corner revealed Ryker heading back towards his spawn, cleaning up the dark ink on the floor. His back was turned to her, leaving a perfect opportunity for the girl to react.

Snickering quietly to herself, Quinn activated her bomb rush and placed some of the suction bombs behind Ryker. She then chucked more of the explosives behind the teen, who by know had picked up on the fact that something wasn't right. Was it a waste of a special, using it in such a tightly cramped place? Probably. Was it worth the look of absolute shock on Ryker's face as he retreated, only to discover the bombs behind him? Absolutely. The teen was met with explosions to the face but had the presence of mind to roll a splat bomb towards Quinn's feet. Then he was gone, splatted, sent flying back to his own spawn point. His black tentacled foe burst out in delighted, raucous laughter as the rest of the bombs blew up, right up until the point where Ryker's own bomb went off. Her chuckles were cut off abruptly as she, too, was splatted.

Despite the fact that his trick with the bomb worked, Ryker still heard Quinn's laughter. In his eyes, it was one full of mockery and scorn, not one of joy. He already was in a bad mood due to Quinn's better than expected performance, and this kind of pushed him over the edge. When he respawned there was fury in his eyes, and he rushed off the spawn point to go and hunt Quinn. The other inkling, at this point, had already finished the respawn process and was also heading for the center of the battlefield. Ryker was on her like a lion, pouncing from behind a box with another bomb in hand. He used it to force the girl back, pushing her out of her gun's range. That left Quinn wide open, and a quick salvo from the hydra splatling finished her off.

"Aw man," she groaned upon respawning. "He seriously got that mad over a trade? Really?"

The girl crept forward, eventually hopping over to the sniper's perch. Despite her apparent brave face, Quinn was a bit unnerved by Ryker's sudden volcano-esque rage. It was rather uncalled for, but at the same time, it made her curious. Poking her head out over the edge, she could just catch sight of the older teen stalking around the middle.

"What is up with him...is he...hunting me? What in ink's name is going through his head?"

Trying to test out her theory, she chucked a suction bomb over to the boy's right once his back was turned. It blew up moments later, the teen only sparing it a quick glance before resuming his prowl around the warehouse. He clearly was hunting her, something that honestly was terrifying.

"Great," Quinn hissed to herself. "Now what do I do?"

All of a sudden, her phone rang, causing the girl to jump. The sound echoed through the battlefield, attracting Ryker's attention. Growling, the orange inkling sent a hail of ink bullets Quinn's way. The girl was forced to leave the relative safety of high ground in her attempts to dodge the attack, dropping to the ground and sprinting away. Uttering a thousand curses mentally, she dug her phone out of her pocket and answered the call, sandwiching the phone between her shoulder and head. It wasn't an ideal situation, as tilting her head like that threw off her aim, but Quinn knew that someone would only call this late at night if they were desperate.

"Hello," she gasped out as she dove out from behind cover to send ink flying at Ryker as the boy charged towards her, mouth drawn back in an angry snarl. None of it came even close to hitting him, and she ended up placing a suction bomb on the floor to try and convince the teen to retreat. This bought the girl time to put a bit more distance between herself and her opponent, the fierce rumble devolving into a quasi-deadly game of tag.

"Bucko? Is that you?" Cap'n Cuttlefish's voice floated through the phone, and Quinn added another dozen or so mental curses to the first thousand. If her boss was calling her this late at night, that could only mean that something had happened in Octo Valley. "Another one of them boss kettles has opened up. I need you to get on over here to contain the threat, STAT!"

"No offense sir, but I'm in the middle of something that I won't be able to step away from easily." Quinn let out a yelp as more orange ink came whizzing her way, and the teen ended up ducking behind a crate to avoid the shots. Thinking quickly, she waited for the deadly fire to stop, then made a break for the narrow corridor that lead back to her base. As she ran the girl haphazardly inked the ground until her special gauge filled up. With little fanfare the black tentacled inkling activated it, dropping suction bombs behind her as she ran. Ryker was forced to wait out the explosions, giving Quinn plenty of time to put some distance between herself and the feral inkling. Heaving a sigh of relief, she leaned up against one of the walls to catch her breath.

"Can't you send one of the others," she begged.

"Echo, Foxtrot, and Kilo are off scouting an area for a potential octarian base," the grizzled old inkling replied. "You're the only one...huh?"

"Now what?" Quinn started to panic a little hearing the captain trail off like that. "Cap'n, you still with us?"

For a moment, there was nothing but silence, and she feared the worse.

"Bucko, I just saw you run by," Cuttlefish finally said, dispelling any notions that he had perished. "What's the big idea of pulling my leg like that? This is serious business here!"

"But that's impossible! I'm in Walleye Warehouse, I challenged someone to a one on one match!"

"Well, then who was that black-tentacled girl I just saw?"

"I'm not certain...gah!" Quinn gasped in pain as Ryker came up behind her, splatting her into oblivion. The girl burst apart in a cloud of orange ink, the respawn pad starting to reconstruct her body as the little black ghost flew over to it. Once she finished reforming, Quinn grabbed her phone and pressed it against her ear, remaining on the spawn point. She'd be safe up there from Ryker.

"Ah, as I was saying, I don't know who it is. As far as I know, I'm the only black tentacled inkling that's currently in the city if not the only one alive."

"Well, regardless, get your heiny over to Octo Valley, pronto," Cuttlefish ordered. "I'll fill you in on the details over there."

"Yes, sir!" Quinn saluted briefly before cutting the connection. She then went to leap off of the spawn pad, only for a hail or orange ink to suddenly come flying at her. Yelping, the teen skittered backward, even though the shield was still there to prevent her from being harmed.

"That's right," Ryker sneered from his position below the spawn point. "Hide in there like a coward."

"Boy, I ain't a coward," she retorted. "But something important came up that I really have to attend to so if you don't mind taking a rain check on this battle…"

"No! You're just running away again like you were at the Kelp Dome. Don't think I don't know what you're doing."

"Actually, you don't," she muttered under her breath.

"What was that?"

"Ah, nothing, nothing, just trying to figure out some things," she stuttered nervously. "Not every day your delusional old grandpa calls in a panic cause he thinks his wife's been abducted by octarians again. The old guy's lost his marbles but it's so much easier to indulge in his hallucinations rather than tell him that Grandma Cerise has been dead for years, you know? Anyways though, I probably should go check up on him so don't mind me I'm just going to be heading off for the night."

"I do mind! We aren't done here, you and I! You're not going anywhere until you finish this fight!"

"Seriously? Man, you're way too competitive," Quinn groaned before assessing her options. Without any warning she suddenly rushed off her spawn point, trying to close the gap between herself and Ryker before the latter could send a barrage of ink her way. It didn't work, the other inkling using one of his bombs to splat her. When the teen respawned, she tried a stealthier tactic by slipping into the ink and swimming rather slowly to minimize any ripples and splashes. That failed as well - her orange foe coated the ground in his own shade of ink to trap her and then finished the girl off with a salvo of bullets while she was stuck.

"Mmkay, this is seriously starting to get on my nerves," she hissed upon respawning again.

"I don't care," Ryker growled. Quinn responded by chucking a suction bomb in his general direction before looking around. Through the grates, she could see the rest of the abandoned factory. Technically she would be trespassing, but given that sneaking into turf war arenas in the middle of the night was already illegal what did she have to lose?

"Sayonara," she muttered before turning into a squid and slipping through one of the fences. Falling to the floor she carefully began swimming towards an exit.

"Get back here!" In his fury Ryker charged forward to give chase, only to be roughly thrown back by the shield surrounding the spawn point. He hit the ground hard, knocking the wind out of him. Quinn heard the loud thump but didn't pause in her trek towards the exit. All she cared about at this point in time was her mission, and the strange girl that looked just like her.

* * *

 **Man this chapter took me way longer to write than I thought it would. Hopefully the next ones will go faster though. My current goal is to get at least up to the old chapter 50 of the first version of this fic before school starts. That gives me a week and a day to get maybe two or three more chapters out, but I think that as long as writer's block doesn't kick in again I'll be able to do it. Anyways, here's hoping you all enjoyed this latest chapter.**

 **A big thanks to BlueTornado3275 and Sunny211 for reviewing this fic! I really appreciate the feedback!**

 **Reviews, follows, and favorites are, as always, welcomed and appreciated!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

It took Quinn half an hour to find her way out of Walleye Warehouse, a normally short journey that was hindered by Ryker still trying to find her. Once the older teen had recovered from his unfortunate run-in with the respawn pad's shielding mechanism he had given chase, trying to find the fleeing inkling. There had been several tense moments where the girl was confident that she had been found, only for the darkness to work to her advantage and hide her from sight. As soon as the black tentacled inkling managed to make her escape, she headed for the sewers and sprinted towards Octo Valley. Upon emerging she found Cap'n Cuttlefish impatiently pacing back and forth in front of his shack.

"Agent 3 reporting in, sir," she gasped out, coming to a screeching halt.

"Finally! Took you long enough, bucko! Those octarians aren't going to sit around waiting for you to go waltzing in there and take back the zapfish you know."

"Yeah yeah," the teen grumbled as she grabbed her suit and ducked behind the partitions to change. "Mind explaining where the others are?"

"We found a continent to the south on some old sea charts, so I sent them to investigate. It's the perfect place for those rotten octarians to build up an invasion force, and that's something we can't allow to happen. Kilo did mention something about messing around with your bombs before he left, so I'd check that out sometime. Now quit your lollygagging, there's an octo weapon to defeat!"

"Alright, alright, I'm going." Quinn stepped out in her hero suit, strapping on her ink tank and pulling her bomb bag from the shelf. A quick glance inside showed that there were some burst bombs mixed in with the seekers and splat bombs. Yusei must have put them there before heading out on his own mission. With a shrug, the teen hooked the pouch on her belt and attached her hero shot to the tank. She was officially locked, loaded, and ready to go splat some octarians. Bidding the captain adieu she darted out of the shack and into the valley, soon coming across long trails of black ink. Obviously someone else had been here before herself.

"Must be from that look alike that the Cap'n saw earlier," she muttered, coming to stop and examining it. The trails were long and thin, both characteristics of a charger class weapon. Quinn filed that information away for later before looking around. Nothing had changed in this first area of the valley aside from all the strange ink, so Quinn headed on over to the inkrail that lead to the second sector of kettles. There were a few notable additions to this area, aside from more black ink. The first was another ornate boss kettle, the rusty lid having been pried off. The second, and arguably more important addition, was the strange looking inkling standing in front of the kettle.

She was about the same height as Quinn and had black tentacles like the agent, but that was where the similarities stopped. Her two long tentacles seemed to have small spike-like protrusions around the suction cups, and between them were three medium sized tentacles linked by webbing. The other three webbed tentacles were styled into bangs that swept across her forehead. Her gear was just as curious as her physical appearance, some strange combination of what appeared to be octoling armor, hero runners, and a weird earpiece and half visor combination. A kelp splatterscope was strapped to her back.

"Who are you," Quinn demanded, pointing her gun at the stranger. The sniper turned around, staring at the agent flatly with startling crimson eyes.

"That depends," she replied with a slightly amused smirk. "If you're here to stop the octarians, then I'm a friend. If not, then you're a foe."

"Yeah, that's what you think. Why are you in Octo Valley? This is a dangerous place that's only supposed to be known by the Squidbeak Splatoon. You claim that you're my friend, but why should I believe you?"

"I'm pretty dangerous too, you know. That's why you shouldn't trust me. But I do believe I am being rude, Agent 3." Quinn flinched as the girl revealed that she knew her callsign. "You can call me Agent Alpha."

"So are you working for Cuttlefish then?"

"Use your head, Agent 3." The way that Alpha spoke her codename lead Quinn to believe that she was well aware of her actual name and was mocking her for hiding her identity. "If I really was fighting alongside Cuttlefish, don't you think he'd have mentioned me by now?"

"Of course he would. I was just checking."

"Sure you were," she muttered sarcastically before glancing at the kettle. "It's been...interesting chatting with you. Not pleasant, but interesting. I think we have more important things to do than simply talk, however. That octo weapon's not going to remain stationary for long, you know. Whether or not you follow me is up to you. I honestly could care less."

With that, the older teen slipped through the grate on the boss kettle and vanished. Quinn scowled and clambered after her.

"Oh, you're not getting rid of me that easily," she vowed before dropping down into the darkness. The trip through the network was longer than usual, exacerbated by the fact that Quinn took a few wrong turns and encountered blocked pipes. By the time she arrived at her destination, it had been almost twenty minutes.

It was a room vaguely reminiscent of the arena where she had dealt with the mighty Octostomp, a perfect circle. RIght in the center was a decent sized pit, filled to the brim with deep fuschia ink. Here was where the rust-colored Octonozzle, the second of the great octo weapons, rested. It was a hideous thing, all covered with algae, kelp, moss and other unidentified plants that no doubt called the murky ooze home. The face had an appearance similar to that of a weirdly misshapen mechanical dog, albeit one coated in plant matter. In any other situation, Agent 3's first thoughts would have been something along the lines of how adorable it looked. The mechanical beast seemed to be content to stay in its ink bath for the time being, despite Alpha's words from earlier. As Quinn observed the beast for a few moments, she noticed a pair of dirty sneakers attached to two ridiculously tiny limbs. After a few moments it became obvious what they were used for.

With what could only be described as a ferocious sneeze, a large orb of fuschia ink fell out of the tube that formed the Octonozzle's nose with a plop. Briefly, it fell through the air until the feet kicked it towards a figure that darted behind one of the many rusted walls littered throughout the battlefield. It was a tall bit of shelter, enough that her form was masked behind it completely. Unperturbed, the inkling combatant leaned out of cover to snap off a shot towards the beast, ducking back behind it just in time to avoid the next attack.

"That must be Alpha," Quinn muttered to herself. "Seems like miss mysterioso couldn't be bothered to wait for me."

The girl wasted no time in dashing over to the launchpad, jumping down into the pit. Quickly she dove behind one of the covers, using a few seekers to make paths between the different shelter points and burst bombs to lay down some extra turf. Eventually, she made her way over to Alpha. The younger agent yanked her back behind the cover and out of the way of an incoming attack, causing her shot to sail wide.

"You messed up my shot," she snapped quietly, a scowl on her face.

"Well excuse me for saving you from being splatted," Quinn retorted as she cleaned up the purple splattered path with a spare burst bomb. She then sunk back into the black ink to replenish her tank. "So, how do we take this thing down?"

"Who said I needed your help," Alpha replied coldly. She disliked working with most inklings, aside from those in her squadron. The young, upstart agent in front of her was no exception to that rule.

"Who said that I was giving you a choice?" The response came quickly, and both black inklings glared at each other for a few tense moments. Neither one of them really cared about the fact that the Octonozzle was still trying, and failing, to attack them. They were much more focused on trying to win the silent little war between them. Finally Alpha smirked, an expression that was almost passable as a smile in her case.

"You've got guts, kid," she said with an amused snort of laughter. "I'll grant you that."

"Guts, shmutz, I don't have all day you know," Quinn snapped. "I'm going to go fight this thing. If you want to join in, then so be it, I honestly could care less. I just can't believe the only other black tentacled inkling I've run into had to be such an angst-lord of a jerk."

"Oh honestly," Alpha scoffed in reply as she began to clean some octarian ink off of her weapon. "Is that really the best insult you can come up with? I didn't expect much out of an upstart like you, but I certainly thought you could do better than that."

"I don't see you doing any better!"

"Sure," the older inkling muttered sarcastically. "Go ahead and try to fight that machine if you want. I doubt you'll be able to do any better than I did."

"I'll make you eat those words!" With that, Quinn armed a splat bomb out into the arena, attracting the attention of the Octonozzle. While it was summarily distracted Quinn rushed forward, spraying ink wildly. Behind the partition, Alpha yawned in boredom as she reassembled her kelp splatterscope

"If she had any brains then she'd realize that won't hold its attention for long," she grumbled. That was something that Alpha knew first hand. Upon her own arrival, the other inkling had tried a similar trick with a sprinkler, but it had quickly lost interest in that once it realized the little device posed no threat.

Sure enough, as Quinn continued to unsuccessfully try and coat the second of the great octoweapons in ink, the bomb blew up. No longer distracted, the Octonozzle rotated its metallic head to her, eyes narrowing when it caught sight of its target. Quinn yelped and dove out of the way as the machine sneezed out another orb of ink in her direction, hand on the trigger. In her hasty dodge, she unwittingly shot the exposed sucker of the tentacle inside the beast. It had been the lock holding the first layer of the beast's body in place, but the attack knocked it out of place. With a loud, metallic crash the body, now unable to support the head.

The impact with the bottom of the pool was forceful, and soon a large tentacle forced its way out of the top of the Octonozzle's head. Quinn stared up at the flailing appendage, then back down at the pool of octarian ink. If she fell in that thing then it'd be an instant splat. Now, the black tentacled inkling liked to try her luck against the octarians - and Ryker, for that matter - but she wasn't exactly fond of how close she was to death at the moment. Thus, instead of braving the gap she tossed a few burst bombs up towards the tentacle. It swelled with black ink, until finally it managed to slither back into the machine. Moments later the machine's body rose back up out of the ink, the single sucker locking the first level back into place.

"Oh…" Quinn didn't even have a chance to finish that statement, instead sprinting for cover and springing over the closest of the six barriers. It happened to be the one that Agent Alpha was behind, and she had an amused smirk on her face.

"How'd it go," she asked sweetly.

"Oh, be quiet," Quinn groused as the Octonozzle's attacks started hitting the barrier again. "I didn't see you do any better."

"So what?" Alpha adopted a flat look on her face as she was reminded of her earlier failure. "I don't see you offering any ways to defeat that thing. Is there any shred of intelligent mind in that brain of yours, or does it spend all its times thinking of dull comebacks?"

"Well," Quinn replied smugly, "since you asked, I was thinking I'd get that slimy bucket of bolts to reveal that ugly tentacle in there, and then you can pick it off. Don't get me wrong, I'd rather have Kilo as my backup, but you'll have to do."

"And what's that supposed to mean," Alpha inquired coldly, not liking the subtle dig at her skill with the charger. "I could snipe circles around this Kilo that you speak of."

"Sure you could," the younger agent sneered. "Now, if you're all done sulking and nursing your wounded pride, I suggest you get ready to lay down some pathways for me."

"Pathways?"

"Yes," Quinn said in a patronizing tone. "Pathways. You know, trails of ink so I can do my job?"

"You're insufferable." Alpha groaned and raised her kelp splatterscope, firing a single trail of ink towards the next point of cover. "Will that suffice, oh demanding one, or should I create a couple more?"

Quinn rolled her eyes and dove into the ink, swimming off to the next point of cover. Alpha watched her go, a flat frown on her face. Honestly, she was a much better shot than Kilo was. After all, it had been Agent Alpha herself that had taught the boy how to use a charger. She had taken the opportunity to watch one of his matches a few days earlier, and while he was quite good he wasn't as good as herself.

Her comrade caught the peeved expression on Alpha's face, but in all honesty, she really didn't care. Quinn had a mission to do, and while she would have rather told Alpha to go someplace else, right now that girl's charger was their only hope of stopping the machine. The younger agent knew from looking at the pool of ink that most attempts to jump across it and onto the Octonozzle's inked side would result in her landing about six inches short. Burst bombs alone wouldn't be enough to stop it, either. Alpha, and not Quinn, would have to take that tentacle out. If that meant that Quinn had to deal with her being a stick in the mud for the time being, then so be it.

Tossing out a seeker to distract the Octonozzle, the young teen dashed forward. She aimed at the lone tentacle that was exposed, splattering it with black ink. Violently it retracted inwards, trying to get away from the foreign substance, causing the body to no longer be locked into place. With a loud crash, the octoweapon's head came smashing down, a small shock wave forcing Quinn back a little.

"Well what're you waiting for," Quinn demanded as Alpha poked her head out, already having charged a shot. "You aren't going to get an invitation you know. Start shooting!"

"Well excuse me, princess, it takes time to aim," Alpha snapped in a sarcastic tone before firing. Quinn tossed a pair of burst bombs up to the flailing tentacle as well. The girl submerged herself in ink to refill her tank while her unlikely ally fired off another shot. This one popped the tentacle, causing a fountain of purple ink to start spurting out. Paling, Quinn jumped out of range, while Alpha ducked back behind her wall. With a roar that tore the ink off of the floor, the Octonozzle revived, twisting back up into the air. Not one but two suckers popped out this time - one in the front and another in the back.

"Joy," Alpha muttered, and for once Quinn agreed with her as she dove out of the way of an incoming blob of ink. Another one soon followed, and then a line of five. The young agent was scrambling all over the place, trying to dodge any attacks. Finally, her companion sighed and tossed a sprinkler out to get the octoweapon's attention.

"Hey Agent 3, quit messing around."

"Messing around?" Quinn's voice carried an indignant tone. "Messing around? For the love of ink, Alpha, I could have lost my life! Are you kidding me right now?"

"Do I look like I'm kidding?" Alpha had her trademark stoic look adorning her face once more, causing Quinn to growl in frustration.

"Just start inking turf," she snapped. Alpha rolled her eyes but hefted her charger over her shoulder and began to paint the ground again. Quinn, meanwhile, darted forward and began to harass the Octonozzle with her gun. Sadly it was a bit more offensive now, as whoever was piloting it was trying to keep her away from the suckers.

"Man, sometimes I really hate this job," Quinn hissed.

"Then leave. I don't need your help." Alpha somehow overheard her, and Quinn shot her the stinkeye before finally managing to pop one of the suckers. Diving back into the ink, she swam a short distance before reemerging to blast the second one, causing the rather unstable machine to go crashing down. She began tossing the burst bombs again, and three shots from Alpha's kelp splatterscope was enough to send the beast flying into an uncontrollable rage. Now it rose to its full height, four suckers poking out to support the shaky tower. With a loud sneeze, it launched a large glob of ink right at the cover that both Quinn and Alpha had hidden behind.

"Gesundheit," Quinn muttered, causing Alpha to sigh.

"Spare me the theatrics," she replied icily. "Let's just get this thing over with."

"Yeah, see, about that," the younger inkling laughed nervously. "I barely managed to get to two suckers in time. What makes you think I'm going to be able to get to all four?"

"Are you serious?

"No, I'm Agent 3," she retorted. "Do you really think I'd joke about something like that?"

"To put it succinctly, yes." If Quinn had hackles, they would have shot straight up at that remark.

"You're the one that's got a killer wail, Ms. Smarty Pants, why don't you charge that up and use it?"

"Because if you had a brain, you'd know like every other squid that special weapons are only allowed in firing ranges and actual ink battles," Alpha replied coolly as Quinn released a seeker to draw the Octonozzle's attention. The slime covered machine began to track the moving bomb, giving the two bickering fighters a much-needed respite.

"Great," Quinn muttered, internally cursing. "I don't have a special in a can to use. An inkzooka or a bomb rush would be pretty helpful right now."

"Quit crying over it," Alpha ordered. "I can get three of those suckers from here, provided that I don't have to dodge any attacks. You get behind it and take out sucker number four, then hold that thing's attention while I do my part."

"Sure thing, like that won't be hard at all." Quinn groaned before slipping into the ink and swimming off, hopping over a thin trail of purple that one of the smaller ink spheres had created. Soon she was in position, though a veritable onslaught of fuschia ink forced her to remain behind cover. Tossing out a bomb didn't give her enough time to act, either.

"Yo Alpha, get off your lazy butt and do something!" On the other side of the arena, Agent Alpha sighed.

"Of course she has to do something dumb enough to get that machine riled up at her," she snarled before bringing her charger up to her shoulder, closing one eye to peer down the scope. Pressing the trigger, a faint whirring sound filled the air as another shot was charged up. The girl waited for approximately two seconds before twisting out of cover in one smooth motion. Quickly she snapped off a shot that landed squarely in the center of one of the suckers. The Octonozzle cried out in pain, allowing Quinn to evade the last attack and pop the sucker in the back. Alpha took care of one of the suckers on the side, then switched to the other one. The girl sank down into her own ink to replenish her tank while the octo weapon fell to the floor with a mighty smashing sound. No doubt the collapse broke some of the internal structural supports in the process.

The tentacle was back again, and this time even more of the ugly thing was exposed. Quinn threw burst bomb after burst bomb, while Alpha snapped off two shots before her tank was emptied. She cursed before slowly charging up a half charged shot and firing. Sadly it didn't have enough range and only managed to coat the one exposed portion of the Octonozzle.

"Agent 3, you're going to have to jump for it," she yelled.

"Are you joking? I'll never be able to make it," the younger teen replied.

"Just hurry up. If you get a running start you should be fine. Probably."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Quinn murmured before diving into her ink and swimming for all she was worth. The edge was fast approaching, and before the girl knew it she was sailing over the edge, the fuschia murk below her bubbling threateningly. Involuntarily her charcoal eyes shut as she began to drop, certain that she hadn't made the leap. Moments later, however, the teen collided into the bottom of the Octonozzle, slipping into the black ink just inches before it ended. Not even taking the moment to reassure herself that she was still alive, Quinn swam to the top. Ink sprayed wildly from her gun, even as the machine began to shake. The tentacle swelled up to massive proportions before bursting apart like wet tissue paper, causing the machine to begin to shake. Quinn dove off of it and onto terra firma, scrambling behind one of the walls. Moments later the machine blew up, spraying black ink everywhere. Its octoling pilot went flying and landed on the very edge of the arena, out cold.

"Hm…" Alpha mused as Quinn began to try and free the zapfish. "Looks like my job here is done."

"Hold up a second. I have a couple of questions to ask you, and I'm certain that the Cap'n will as well. So if you don't mind…"

"I do mind." Alpha backed up a few steps as she spoke. "It was...interesting working with you. Not pleasant, but interesting. Until next time, Agent 3."

"Hey wait just a minute! I'll have you know that you weren't good company yourself!" Quinn charged forward, but before she could reach her Alpha shifted into a squid and super jumped away. Her form was quickly lost in the darkness of the dome. Realizing that there was no way to follow her, the younger inkling turned her attention back to the zapfish. The girl freed the little creature before walking off into the darkness herself.

"I don't know who that girl thinks she is," the black tentacled inkling muttered sourly. "But it looks like I'm going to have to look into her a bit more once I get back to Inkopolis."

* * *

 **Another chapter done! Not going to lie, this is actually my favorite part of the original draft, and I pretty much kept it the same since I was pleased with how it turned out. Hopefully you all enjoyed this chapter.**

 **A big thanks to Sunny 211 for leaving a review! And to answer your question, no school hasn't started yet. I go back on the 27th. Once I go back I probably won't be able to upload as frequently just because I'll have homework and stuff like that.**

 **As always, any follows, favorites, or reviews are appreciated!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

Lord Octavio wasn't happy. If the crossed tentacles and the angry scowl on his face weren't enough to clue anyone in on that, the fact that he was currently yelling at one of his generals in front of his advisors and his young daughter should have been a pretty big hint about his current mood. He had no reason to be joyous at the moment, given that his day had been full of bad news. First octarians from one of the lower domes had brought back a half-conscious Orion, the pilot of the great octoweapons, and news of the Octonozzle's destruction. And now his most trusted general had come with more problematic tidings.

"What do you mean you don't know what the machine is for," he demanded, causing Odette to shrug.

"Exactly what the phrase 'I am uncertain as to what the machine being constructed will be used for' means, my lord," she replied in a tired tone of voice. "My scouts had to retreat due to a group of inkling security guards. There were too many for Octavia's platoon to fight off."

"Does it really matter what that machine does," one of the king's advisors wondered aloud. "The inklings built it, which means it is bad news for us. Ergo, we should destroy is as soon as possible. Send an octostriker to blow it sky high."

"It's not that simple, idiot," another one snapped, conking the first advisor on the head. "Suppose it's manufacturing poison. It'll leach into the ocean and the next thing you know we'll have to worry about mutant sharks running around snapping all of us up."

"Aside from that, an octostriker is too noticeable," Odette pointed out."We're barely pulling off the nighttime octostriker attacks as it is. Cuttlefish's agents seem to want to keep this war a secret from the rest of inkling kind for some reason. If we're going to announce our presence, we'll need to do it in a way to disable Inkopolis."

"So what do you two propose then," the first advisor cried, throwing his hands up in the air. "Since you two seem to have all the answers!"

"Silence!"

At Octavio's words, the bickering ceased to a halt. Briefly, the leader of the octarians looked around the room, glaring at his advisors and general. His gaze then moved to Odette, who was rigidly standing at attention.

"What exactly do you propose, General Atramento," he asked in an impatient tone.

"My squadron can easily infiltrate the inkling settlement," Odette replied, glancing downward as Oda toddled over to her side, the little girl giggling to herself. "The vast majority of the population is old and frail, and more importantly there is no weapons shop. It will be easy to sneak through and reach the machine. Orion also has developed a few canned specials for our use, modeled after ones we found in the valley. Those will prove to be most useful to us if Cuttlefish's agents decide to try and ruin our plans."

"Excellent. Now, what's your plan of attack?"

The octarians continued to discuss their latest plot, unaware that they had an unwanted visitor. It was extremely rare for any intruders to get this deep into the inner sanctum of the underground civilization, but on this occasion, they had such an intruder. It was, of course, Agent Alpha. The curious black tentacled cephalopod had been sneaking around the main octarian city ever since her fight with the Octonozzle, and in the process had uncovered several interesting tidbits of information. This newest one, however, was the most troubling. A large-scale invasion of one of the many inkling settlements? That was worrisome, to say the least.

"Great," Alpha groaned to herself. "I'm too far underground, I'll never make it to the surface in time. Someone else is going to have to stop them...and unfortunately, I know exactly who that's going to have to be…"

* * *

"So what exactly is Splashtown like, anyway," Dash asked as he looked out the window. The light blue inkling, along with Quinn and Langston, were currently sitting in a bullet train, speeding towards the northern settlements. Once some of the zapfish had been returned, the train lines had been one of the first things to be restored. They were of vital importance, both for allowing quick travel across the continent and the transport of materials.

"Oh, it's just your average little town, a population equal to that of one of Inkopolis' train stations when it isn't rush hour." Even though she was obviously joking around, Quinn had a fond smile on her face as she spoke. "Most of the citizens there are elderly, it's like having a whole bunch of grandmas and grandpas. I'm actually the first inkling from there to turn fourteen in about six or seven years, and the next one is in four years when my little brother hits the big number."

"Wait." Langston blinked before staring at his friend. "You've got a brother?"

"Yeah." Quinn nodded absently as she took a bite out of her tuna sandwich. "He's quite the annoyingly endearing squid, too. My best guess is that he'll probably be all over us once we get to my house."

"Now arriving at Splashtown Station, All passengers who are getting off, please get ready to disembark."

"Aw sweet! We're here!" In her excitement, Quinn shoved the rest of her sandwich into her mouth and bolted out of her seat. "Come on guys! Let's go!"

Langston and Dash looked at each other before sighing.

"Well...she's certainly eager," Langston muttered before grabbing both his own suitcase and that of their friend.

"I don't blame here," Dash replied with a shrug. "I mean, she hasn't seen her family in months. It's not like they're as close as ours are."

"Come on guys! Hurry up!"

"We're coming, just be a little patient!" The light blue inkling sighed before glancing over at his masked friend. "Guess we better get moving before she drags us there."

The two boys hurried off the train and headed over to Quinn, who was impatiently waiting by the station's exit. Upon seeing them, she grinned and pushed the door open before heading outside. Her excitement was contagious, as the other members of the trio felt grins crawling onto their faces as they walked out of the station. No doubt the other passengers on the train were a bit surprised at their eagerness. After all, most of them were not here for some pleasure trip, instead having come here to work on the hydroelectric power station to the north. Langston and Dash hadn't been completely thrilled about that aspect of the trip, but having Quinn tag along certainly made things a lot more appealing.

"So this is where you grew up?" Dash looked around at all the admittedly plain, drab buildings that dotted the landscape. "Looks kind of boring."

"Dash!" Langston rolled his eyes and socked him in the shoulder. "That's rude! I happen to find this place charming, in a rustic sort of way."

"Or maybe you find it charming cause your girlfriend's home is here," the light blue inkling muttered, just loud enough for his masked friend to hear. Langston's eyes widened in shock, and frantically the teen shook his head. What was visible of his expression practically begged Dash to not give his secret away.

"Oh hey, they fixed the slide!" Quinn, completely oblivious to the semi-private conversation between the two boys, darted over to a small playground near the station. Sure enough, there was a shiny new slide there. "I can remember back when this thing was super grungy and had a few rough patches and holes in it. Made for some real fun rides down it let me tell you."

"I can imagine…" Dash muttered awkwardly, causing the girl to laugh.

"You two probably think that I'm crazy, calling something like that fun," she said knowingly. "Around here there's not a lot to do, so we learned how to make our own fun with what we had. You'd be surprised how much you can do even out in the boonies."

"Like what?" Langston sounded genuinely curious as the younger teen ran back over to them.

"Back when I was younger I did a lot of exploring. I knew the beaches and forests around here like the back of my hand. There were a bunch of good places to go and hide when I needed some time by myself." She pointed at a small clump of trees nearby. "For example, there's a cave that leads to the beach near those trees. Most inklings don't even know that it's there."

"Wow." Dash darted over to the trees to take a look. Sure enough, just like Quinn had said, there was a small opening in the rocky hill. The air flowing out of it was salty, and if he listened closely the light blue inkling could faintly hear waves crashing against the rocks.

"You were right," he exclaimed upon running back over to the others, causing Quinn to laugh.

"What, you doubted me," the black-tentacled cephalopod asked in mock offense. "You wound me Dash."

"H-hey, I didn't mean it like that!"

"She's pulling your leg Dash," Langston said with a sigh, causing Quinn to giggle.

"..." Dash sighed. "Of course she is…"

"Aw, don't be like that," the black-tentacled girl said with a grin. "I'll show you all over the place. There's a rock formation nearby that looks like a dragon, we can go there!"

"Perhaps another time," Langston suggested. "Shouldn't we head over to your house first, Quinn?"

"Oh yeah! Come on, it's this way." Quinn set off in a steady trot down the street, waving to a few of the older inklings out and about. The two boys looked at each other before shrugging and heading after her. A few of the cephalopods gave them curious looks as they went about their business, but the pair weren't too bothered by it. They were used to being stared at back in Inkopolis. Instead, they were more focused on the surrounding town, and all its whimsical little quirks. Most noticeable were different colors of ink smeared everywhere, and surprisingly a fair amount of it was red. When Langston pointed it out to the others, however, Quinn had merely chuckled and waved his concerns aside. She didn't seem to be worried about it that much, so the boys did their best to shrug it off.

Eventually, the trio turned down a side street, moving away from the main street in the city. This part of town was more of a residential neighborhood than a business sector. Houses lined the quiet roadways, and trees dotted the landscape. It lent a tranquil atmosphere to the place, a stark contrast to the hustle and bustle the boys were used to. One such house, which had a copious amount of red ink, was the one Quinn appeared to be heading to.

"Sissy!"

Suddenly a red blob fell out of one of the trees and landed on top of Quinn's head. Closer examination revealed it was a squid with bright green eyes. His joyful voice was rather high pitched, typical of a child. It seemed like this sort of entrance wasn't unusual for the boy, since Quinn didn't seem to be at all surprised by it.

"Harley, what were you doing up in that tree," she asked, causing the red squid to giggle.

"Waiting for you," he chirped before flopping over onto Dash's head. "Who're these people sissy?"

"I'm Dash, and that's Langston," the light blue squid replied. "So you're...Harley?"

"Yep!" Harley hopped back over to Quinn. "Sissy, are they your boyfriends?"

"W-what?" Quinn - along with Langston - both flushed scarlet. Dash merely grinned and shook his head.

"Sorry Harley, but I've got my eyes on someone else," he said before glancing slyly over at Langston. "Now, Langston on the other hand-"

"Not another word from you," the masked inkling grumbled, covering Dash's mouth with his hand. Quinn looked at the pair in confusion, while Harley let out another laugh. He then flopped down onto the ground and headed towards the house.

"Come on, come on," the young inkling called over his shoulder. "Mom's making krill! Yummy krill, tasty krill, delicious krill!"

His older sister let out an amused chuckle, which only grew louder as she caught sight of the confused looks on her friends' faces.

"Was that squid...red?"

"What was that all about," Dash inquired, staring after Harley. "He just came out of nowhere."

"Nah, he's bright green," Quinn joked before laughing. "Just kidding. That's my younger brother Harley. He can be kind of...childish at times. And yes, he is red, a little red terror. It's hard to believe that he's ten at times."

"There is no way that kid is ten," Langston said with certainty as the trio entered the house. A mouthwatering aroma hung in the air, making more than one of their stomachs grumble. Quinn grinned before kicking off her shoes.

"Mom," she called, "I'm home!"

"Quinn!" An excited voice drifted out from deeper in the abode, and soon the sound of footsteps filled the air. A middle-aged inkling appeared in a doorway, her sunny yellow tentacles matching the grin on her face. That same smile only grew wider as she caught sight of the black-tentacled inkling.

"My baby is home," she cried before sweeping Quinn up in a hug. "I've missed you so much, sweetie!"

"Ack!"

Both of the boys let out a chuckle at the expression on Quinn's face - a cross between panic and a cry for air. It didn't last long, as her face quickly morphed into a mock glare. Her mother eventually let go of her daughter.

"And who are these fellows," she asked, crossing her arms as she studied them.

"Masky is Sissy's boyfriend," Harley announced as he flopped into the room. "And Dash is Masky's wingman."

"W-what?"

"Eh, I wish…" Langston mumbled, his words masked by Quinn's louder outcry. Dash, meanwhile, laughed and picked up Harley.

"I like this little guy," he announced, causing the red squid to grin and hop up onto his head.

"Of course you do." His dark blue companion let out a sigh before looking over at Quinn's mother. "Neither of us are Quinn's boyfriend, Mrs. Inkdancer. We're just friends who were heading out this way and decided to make the trip with her."

"Oh, call me Autumn," she said with a wave of her hand. "Most everyone does. It's nice to meet you, though admittedly I am surprised to see someone so young coming here - aside from Quinn of course."

"We're reporting for our guard shift at the construction site up north," Langston explained as the teenagers kicked their shoes off and ventured further into the house. "Ever since the zapfish went missing the House of Hundred's been asking inklings to go and guard the power plant in case whoever took the zapfish tries to sabotage the site."

"Mmhm." Dash nodded absently as Harley flopped off his head and turned into his somewhat developed kid form. The child ran ahead of the group, no doubt heading for the kitchen to get some food. "That power plant's our best bet at curbing our reliance on the zapfish. But if it gets destroyed we're screwed."

"I guess they expedited the construction then," Autumn mused. "That plant's been under construction since before Jonathan and I moved here, but I never heard of any major progress being made."

"I can guarantee that," her daughter added with a slight grin. "I explored all over that place when I was little. It's super cool, but nothing ever really ended up changing over there. There's been some cool stuff I found there."

"Wait, you've been exploring that place? I thought I told you to stay away from that place."

"Eh heh heh…" Quinn grinned sheepishly as her mother glared at her. Suddenly her phone rang, breaking the silence. "Oh, excuse me I've got a call to take."

Before her mother could lecture her any further about the dangers of exploring abandoned construction sites, Quinn made a break for the door. Autumn watched her go with a sigh before shaking her head.

"Remind me to lecture her later," she muttered with another sigh. "I told her not go near that place…"

* * *

Quinn let out a relieved sigh as she collapsed into a chair on the front porch.

"That was a close one," she muttered before digging into her pocket. Pulling out her phone, the girl answered the call. "Hello?"

"Greetings, Agent 3."

"...how the kelp did you get my number, Alpha," she demanded, lowering her voice to a whisper and quickly glancing around to make sure that no one was eavesdropping. This was not the type of conversation to have out in an open, public place after all.

"Quit being snippy," the other black inkling snapped in response. "I'm not enjoying calling you for help either. Listen, there's an octarian invasion force being sent to a northern settlement called Splashtown. Now, if you weren't aware of it, and I doubt you are - "

"Oi! I grew up here! I know everything about this place."

"So you're there already? That makes things more convenient." Alpha let out a sigh before continuing to speak. "In that case, the octarians are going to attack the power station that's being constructed in three days. You might want to stop them."

"No, really?" Quinn's voice dripped with sarcasm. "I can't possibly see why I would want to do that. And tell me, oh high and mighty one, how come you aren't just taking care of this yourself? You hate working in groups. Could it be that you actually are able to realize when your charger isn't enough?"

"Don't get the wrong idea, Agent 3," the older girl replied flatly. "The only reason why I'm not handling this myself is because I won't be able to get to Splashtown in time. Consider yourself lucky I'm asking you to take care of this instead of calling up Omega and Delta."

"Meh. I sure don't feel lucky hearing that from you. And by the way, just who are you anyway? The only other black tentacled inkling I've heard about was a girl named Nyx, and she's supposedly dead."

Alpha paused for a minute, long enough to make Quinn wonder if she had hung up on her. When she finally spoke her voice was much quieter than normal.

"...I'm no one special. Just stop the octarians. Hopefully, I won't see you later."

With that, the older agent terminated the call. Quinn stared at the phone for a minute, her hands clenched into fists. She took a few moments to calm herself, doing her best to make it appear like nothing was wrong and that she hadn't just gotten her vacation interrupted.

"Okay, let's review," the teen mumbled aloud. "An octarian invasion is coming, they'll attack tomorrow, and I get to be the lucky girl to stop it completely by myself. Joy…"

* * *

 **Filler chapters can be a pain to write sometimes. Between this and a bunch of troubles in my non-online life, I had a lot of trouble getting this chapter done. Hopefully, the next one won't take as long - I only have a few more weeks of school and action-packed chapters don't give me as much trouble for some reason.**

 **As always, thank you for the reviews, follows and favorites. They're always appreciated.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

Three days later, Quinn soundlessly slipped out of her house after everyone had gone to bed. Shifting her tentacles to a dark blue shade that would help hide her identity, the inkling vanished into the shadows. For a normally cheerful girl, the teen was rather tense as she darted through the quiet town and into the forest. There was a shortcut near the fire hall that Quinn was planning on taking. It would cut her travel time down in half. Already she could see just the very tip of the building over the treetops, a dark silhouette against the stormy sky. Acidic drops of rain pelted the girl, who shivered and pulled her jacket closer against her skin. Lightning flashed through the sky, and gradually as Quinn grew closer the bolts began to reveal other inklings stationed in and around the station.

"Heh, this will be a fun little challenge," she said with a lazy smirk. "Not only do I have an invasion to stop I have to do it without any inkling dying either. Oh, and I have to make sure Dash and Langston don't recognize me either. Gee, I can't possibly imagine what could go wrong."

It was a tricky problem, to be certain. She had already done her best to hide her identity, choosing to wear a jacket, beanie, and tinted shades. It was also the reason why she had her splash-o-matic hidden away for a moment - she was planning on borrowing a weapon from someone else. It wasn't stealing if she returned it, right?

Soon a splattershot wielding inkling walked by her hiding place, and the girl pounced. There was a brief struggle but Quinn managed to get a lucky strike in and snatch his gun away.

"Now listen up buddy," she said, eyeing his gear as she pointed his own weapon at him. He wasn't wearing any fancy gear, and even was still wearing his basic yellow tee. "You're going to stay here because there's an invasion coming and if you don't want to die you'll hide. I'm going to borrow your gun, so don't bother trying to play hero. So, are you going to be a good boy or do I need to knock you out?"

"U-uh…" The boy blinked rapidly, scooting backward to try and get away from her. "I-I'll stay..."

"Good. See you around, kid." Quinn holstered the gun before darting towards the building. She had no clue when the guards were coming, so hopefully she would make it to cover before someone else came by. The girl was well aware of the fact that her earlier scuffle with the boy was only won due to the fact that he was inexperienced. The others would be more skilled. Coming to a stop outside of the building she began to climb some scaffolding...just as another set of guards rounded the corner. For one silent, cliche moment the two groups looked at each other. Then Quinn burst into movement, flipping up onto the artificial surface and kicking one of them in the stomach. Both boys let out shouts, drawing their weapons and taking aim at the girl. Ink went flying as Quinn returned fire with her borrowed gun.

A few bullets hit Quinn, causing her to grit her teeth and duck behind a pile of boards for shelter.

"Give up, you can't beat us by yourself," one of them called. "Just drop your weapon and come out with your hands up."

"Drop my weapon?" Quinn blinked before grinning and reaching for one of her unarmed splat bombs. "Sure thing."

With that she chucked it over the planks, giggling a bit as the guards shouted and ran away from the bombs. Once they were out of the way Quinn scrambled on top of the planks and made a leap for a rough ledge on the second floor. Outraged cries from the guards followed her as she managed to grab onto the hard surface.

"Stop, intruder!"

"You're going to have more important intruders to worry about than little old me in a few minutes," the agent muttered to herself as she ignored the shouts below. She was more preoccupied with the shadows flitting about overhead. Octarian UFOs, small compared to the ones that octostrikers were transported on, were steadily moving in. "Cause whoever's on those aircraft aren't going to be hurling unarmed splat bombs around."

A shot whizzing past her ear brought her attention back to the guards. Sighing, Quinn scrambled up to the next level, pulling herself out of sight of the guards below. She took a moment to straighten her now rumpled jacket before paling as footsteps echoed in the air. The teenager quickly turned into a squid and hid herself in the shadows.

"Did you hear yelling coming from over here," a boy asked as another pair of guards rounded the corner. His partner, a girl with a bento splat charger, shrugged before letting out a shriek as an octoling suddenly superjumped in front of them.

"Holy mackerel, what on earth is that?"

"Sound the alarm and get to high ground," her friend ordered as he began to open fire with his aerospray mg. "Your charger's useless at close range."

"Got it!" The girl placed a splash wall down to give her teammate a bit of cover before sprinting off. Quinn groaned before darting down the corridor, taking aim with her weapon. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the sniper smash a fist into a button on the wall. She then clambered onto a crate, charging up a shot. A firefight erupted in the hallway, with the octoling taking on the two inklings. Had it been a turf war, then she would have been toast. In a narrow corridor such as this one, getting around a pair of close and long-range threats would pose a problem. Octarian civilization trained their soldiers for all sorts of extreme situations, however, and this one was no exception. Slowly but surely, the octoling forced the aerospray user back towards the sniper's nest, hissing a bit as some stray ink bullets hit her.

"Gah!" A lucky strike by the octoling hit the boy's legs, the limbs instantly going numb as the fuschia ink saturated them. It was enough to cause him to lose his footing and, with a dull thunk, he fell over.

"Richard! Get away from him," the sniper yelled in anguish at the advancing octoling. The evolved octopus snickered before dodging to the side. It was at this point that Quinn managed to reach the fight, throwing out a splat bomb to halt the octoling's advance. She then darted forward, letting a trio of ink bullets fly from her gun. They hit their mark and, with a wail, the octoling was splatted.

"What on earth?" Richard looked confused. Quinn sighed before beginning to trudge down the hallway.

"There's more of those octolings coming this way," she said over her shoulder. "You might want to figure out if you're going to stay and fight or run. Personally, I'd suggest the latter."

"You're not running," the sniper pointed out as Quinn continued to head towards the stairs. The girl paused before letting out a quiet chuckle.

"It's not my job to do so," the girl replied before turning the corner and vanishing.

* * *

"What's going on?"

Those were the first words out of Dash's mouth as the alarms began to blare. The two boys were patrolling the upper levels just outside of where the control room was located. At the moment the next floor up hadn't been installed yet, leaving them with a roof of stars.

"I don't know…" Langston replied after a bit of thought. "There weren't any drills scheduled for today."

"Maybe it's a malfunction." Although the blue tentacled inkling phrased it as a statement, he sounded as if he was trying to convince himself that nothing was going on. Langston sighed and shook his head, happening to glance upwards as he did so. Much to his shock, the stars were blocked out by dark silhouettes.

"...what on earth…" He trailed off as a slight snicker echoed from behind them. As one, the pair turned around to see an octoling advancing on them. She laughed again before opening fire with her octoshot. Dash and Langston looked at each other before splitting up - the former going left and the latter going right. Together they charged towards their foe, returning fire to meet her assault head-on. The octoling was expecting this, however, and, with another laugh, she ducked behind cover.

"Finally, a chance to make you inkling scum pay for what you did to my people," she hissed in delight.

"Hate to break it to you," Dash retorted, "but there aren't that many of us still alive from that time. And that assumes that there are any left at all."

"Save your breath," Langston sighed, throwing a seeker out to force the octoling from her hiding spot. "Your words will be wasted on her."

"Yeah well...whatever." Dash darted behind the octoling and emptied the contents of his tri slosher nouveau on top of her head. His friend followed up with a few quick shots from his .52 gal deco, and the octoling burst apart in a cloud of ink. Pooling on the ground, the ink bubbled for a bit before the unconscious cephalopod's body bubbled to the surface.

"What on earth is that," the dark blue inkling inquired, catching his breath now that the danger had been stopped momentarily.

"Octolings," Dash replied as he cleaned off his weapon. "I ran into them once at a late night rumble in the Kelp Dome. It was an...unpleasant experience."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Ryker had challenged Quinn to a fight since well, he's Ryker and when does he ever do stuff that's logical involving his rivals. The octolings showed up about three-quarters of the way through. They took us all hostage until some weird inkling showed up and kicked them out."

"That's weird…" Langston trailed off, lost in thought until short orders being barked at unseen cephalopods brought him back to the present. "What wa-"

"Shhhh!" Dash shushed him before sneaking towards the control room. Easing the door open, the pair managed to catch sight of octotroopers hurrying around. They appeared to be messing around with the control terminals under the supervision of a pair of octolings.

"We have to shut this place down before they finish its completion," one of them continued before glaring at a few of the slower-moving ones. "Move faster! We're wasting time!"

"Calm down, Octavia," the other one chastised. "I'm sure the rest of my squadron is keeping the guards busy."

"Yeah...about that…" Dash smirked before looking over at Langston, a slightly amused expression on his face. He then strode into the room, attracting the attention of the octarians in the room. "Not all of us are easily kept occupied."

"So...care to explain what you're doing here," his companion asked. "You are technically trespassing you know."

"We're trying to blow this place up," Octavia retorted with a roll of her eyes. "Trespassing is the _last_ thing I'm worried about."

A soft click resounded in the air as both of the boys prepped their weapons.

"..." Odette sighed and drew her octoshot. "You imbecile…"

Before anyone could do anything, however, some dark colored ink flew in from one of the open windows. Following them was a strange looking-inkling. At first glance she appeared to be nothing more than another guard. The smirk on her face, though, showed that she was not an ordinary member of the security force.

"Now now now," she chided, wagging a finger at the group. "What's all this about having a party and not inviting me?"

"W-who are you," Dash demanded.

"Agent 3," Odette spit out. "So you did come after all."

"Well someone's gotta stop you folks from spreading mayhem and destruction." Agent 3 smirked, twirling her borrowed splattershot around before opening fire on the octolings. Octavia leered before returning in kind, her superior coming to her aid. Unexpectedly, however, Dash jumped forward and launched a salvo of ink towards the two intruders. Langston was still recovering from the shock of not one but three intruders busting into the control room. He still managed to arm a seeker and send it whizzing off towards the octarians that were still placing charges.

"Alright, listen up kiddos." Quinn yanked both boys behind a large crate as the octolings' attack grew a bit more ferocious in retaliation. "Messing around with Odette and Octavia's not the worst thing in the world, but if we don't stop the grunts then this place is going to be blown sky high."

"So," Langston inquired calmly, "what do you propose?"

"You with the .52 gal deco, you're with me," Quinn decided. "As for you, Bluey, you put that bucket of yours to good use and take out those octarian ground troops. Masky and I will keep the octolings busy."

She was about to say more when suddenly the girl jerked her head out of the way. A loud thunk filled the air as a concentrated blast of pressurized ink shattered the crate, sending electronic devices everywhere. Glancing behind them, the group could see a trio of towering octarians, all armed with sniper rifles, taking aim through the open windows.

"Great...octosnipers…" The girl sighed in annoyance before chucking a splat bomb through the window at them. "Alright, change of plans. Gas Mask, you've got the octosnipers. I'll take care of the octolings."

Without waiting for an answer, the teen vaulted over the remaining crates. Cackling slightly, she charged forward to engage the octolings once more. The middle of the room turned into an impromptu firefight, both sides firing rapidly and dodging the ink bullets sent their way.

"Bluey…" Dash was seething over Agent 3's nickname for him. "My name's not Bluey."

"Quit your whining," Langston replied tiredly, sending out a few seekers to clear a path to the door for him. "Just do what she told you to do. If this thing gets destroyed, Inkopolis might enter a state of panic. The population's already on edge with the loss of the Great Zapfish. The prospect of a power plant that will provide them energy is pretty much the only thing that has stopped them from rioting, and I'm sure you remembered what happened the last time there were riots."

Dash reflexively ran his hand over his mask, not seeming too happy about that realization. With a sigh, he bypassed the fight going on in the center of the room and ran towards the octarian grunts. Fortunately, he was just out of the octosnipers' range, but he'd have to be careful not to back up. Being splatted was not on his to-do list. Langston watched him go before diving into his ink. Stealthily he swam towards the octosnipers, wishing that he had gear imbued with the ninja squid ability. If there was one thing he had learned from battling his way up through the House, it was that all snipers were paranoid. They were constantly on the lookout for even the slightest hint of movement. Some of them were so jumpy that they could barely keep a hold of a charged shot. Every little ripple was a target.

Fortunately, it seemed that the octosnipers were not as trigger happy as his old friends. Soon the dark blue squid found himself hiding behind a metal wall near his target. Taking a deep breath, he checked to make sure his ink tank was fully filled.

"Alright," he murmured. "Let's get this show on the road…"

* * *

 **It certainly has been a while, hasn't it? My apologies for taking so long in between chapters. School was killing me, and my health has not been the greatest this fall (as I type this author's note I am sick with what is probably the stomach flu or a c diff relapse). The good news, however, is that now that I have a few weeks off and Christmas is over, I should be able to write more regularly. My goal is to update every other week during the break, and perhaps get a chapter started that I can work on over the semester.**

 **Other than that, happy belated holidays. I hope you all had a wonderful time. And thank you for sticking with the story! It means a lot to me that people are interested in what I write. As always, follows, favorites, and reviews are greatly appreciated.  
**


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

"Now now, girls," Quinn quipped as she twirled out of the way of some octarian ink. "Didn't your mothers ever tell you not to try and kill anyone?"

"That doesn't apply to inkling scum like you," Octavia sneered in reply. The lieutenant continued to fire, super jumping backward to put some distance between herself and the octoling. Odette, meanwhile, was trying to slip off to take care of Dash. Noticing this, the agent quickly got between them, tossing a suction bomb to force the older octoling to back off.

"Sorry, but you seem to be forgetting that I'm your opponent," she chided, shaking her finger at the girl. "Bluey's playing with someone else right now."

"My name's not Bluey," Dash shouted in irritation. His outburst attracted the attention of the octosnipers. Three laser beams instantly locked on to him, but when the towering octarians fired they discovered that the inkling was just out of their range.

"You're blue," Quinn pointed out with a shrug. "It wouldn't make much sense to call you something else, like Greenie, now would it?"

Dash grumbled a bit more under his breath before refocusing on the task at hand. Approaching the closest octarian, he quickly doused them with the contents of his tri slosher nouveau. They quickly were splatted, leaving a set of charges behind. Dash didn't bother with removing the machinery, instead choosing to focus on his next target. The explosives would need to be defused, after all, and he wasn't an expert in bombs.

* * *

Outside of the room, Langston could hear Agent 3 and Dash bickering with each other. He groaned, realizing that the present moment wasn't the right time to argue. Although he did have to admit, the pair were doing a wonderful job of distracting the octosnipers. Their little argument had unwittingly drawn the snipers' attention, causing them to focus on the battle inside the control room. It appeared that they had no idea that a more pressing danger was currently hiding right next to them.

The teen laid a hand on his gun, fingers itching to pull the trigger. Now was not the right moment to strike, however - he wanted to minimize the chances of them splatting him. It came when his closest target fired off a shot towards Agent 3. Laughing, the girl merely flipped behind Octavia. The octoling took the blow instead, and while it didn't splat her, it did annoy the lieutenant.

Rising up out of his blue ink, Langston let a hail of ink bullets pepper the octosniper. With a cry, they burst apart into a cloud of blue ink. Moments later their unconscious body bubbled to the surface. The teen didn't want to take any chance, however, and quickly used a seeker to wreck the long charger it was carrying. Even if they woke up before the battle was over, the weapon would be unusable. Langston did not have time to survey his handiwork, however. Both remaining octosnipers fired at him, having been alerted to his presence when he took out their partner. Underneath his mask, Langston's eyes widened, and he sunk down into the ink before swimming back behind cover. For a few heart-pounding moments, the octosnipers continued to aim at his hiding place. It was only when they finally lost interest and returned to watching the ongoing battle in the control room.

* * *

Quinn had heard the octosniper's shout as they were defeated, causing a smirk to flit across her face. She spared a moment to glance behind her, and just managed to catch Langston's mad swim for cover. The girl breathed a quick sigh of relief, thankful that he wasn't hurt.

"Weren't you just nagging us about remaining focused," Odette demanded coldly as she managed to graze Quinn with a bullet. It was a superficial wound, and a quick dive into her own ink flushed the toxins from her system. Nonetheless, it startled her.

"Yes," she replied with a shrug. "I do suppose I was. My apologies, but unlike the rest of you I happen to care about whether or not my allies make it out of here in one piece."

"Hah, says the girl who can't even kill us," Octavia snorted in contempt. Surprisingly, her comment merely made the agent laugh.

"Why would I kill you," she inquired calmly, sliding underneath some enemy fire and twisting out of the way of another barrage from the octosnipers. "There are more ways to win than simply killing everyone in sight."

Over by the control panel, Dash was surprised to hear this. The octarians seemed to be doing their best to murder the mysterious Agent 3 in cold blood, but for whatever reason, their foe did not hold the same malice. Even now, she was treating this more like a game of Turf Wars rather than an actual battle. He had more pressing things to worry about at the moment though. Chief among his concerns was the half a dozen octarians still busily attaching explosive to the control panels. Occasionally they paused to take potshots at him, and sure enough, a pair soon turned and fired at him. He dodged two shots, dumping ink on a trio that was particularly close to him. Just as they were about to be splatted, however, one of them managed to nail Dash right in the chest. Pain washed over him as the dangerously high levels of clashing ink colors threatened to rip apart his system. He just barely managed to retreat back into his own ink before being splatted. His targets shook off the attack and got back to work, causing the teen to curse under his breath.

Stealthily, he swam closer, slipping up right behind the one that had almost splatted him. The octarian let out a frustrated grunt as they were suddenly coated with blue ink. The direct hit splatted them almost instantly. Dash followed up on his advantage, splatting the other two in the trio as well.

"Thank goodness for damage ups," he muttered before launching a seeker at a far-off octarian. Unfortunately, the targeting mechanism in the bomb locked onto one of the octolings and instead went after her. It hit its mark, exploding once it came into contact with her. Agent3 followed up on this unexpected advantage with a salvo of ink, splatting her.

"Thanks for the assist," she yelled. "Now get back to work."

Dash nodded, before something behind the girl made him pale

"Behind you, he yelled, grunting in pain as an octosniper shot him. Cursing himself for straying into their range, the boy burst apart. A little blue ghost emerged from the ink, flying off to the respawn pad five stories below. Agent 3 whipped around, just in time to see Odette finish prying open a canned special. With a malicious grin, the octoling morphed into a huge kraken and rushed her foe.

"Oh…" Quinn didn't even bother finishing that statement, instead opening her fire. The girl's ink tank was full, and though Odette pressed onwards the force from the ink bullets was enough to push her back. The kraken was right on top of her, just barely out of striking distance. With a worried look, Quinn glanced towards her ink tank, frowning as it slowly emptied.

Just when it was about to drain completely, Odette's kraken ran out. Reluctantly the octoling stood back up, fulling exposing her humanoid form. Before she could do anything, Quinn slammed the butt of her gun into her head, stunning her for a few moments.

* * *

Upon seeing Odette turn into a kraken, Langston's heats skipped a few beats. Dealing with the invasion was one thing. Dealing with intruders that had specials? Now that was completely different.

"Of course it had to be a special with invincibility," he mumbled in a panic. No sooner had he spoken those words did the teen mentally slap himself. He had a job to finish, and worrying about this mysterious ally wasn't going to help him complete it any quicker. Besides, from what he had seen, the girl could handle herself. Shaking his head, the teen rushed the second octosniper. The towering octarian was quickly dispatched, and Langston wasted no time refocusing on the third. Abandoning any pretense of stealth, he ran towards the beast in a zigzag path. It was a trick that worked with snipers normally, and hopefully, it would work here. Was it reckless? Absolutely. Did he really care about that at the moment?

No, not in the slightest.

His gamble paid off. When the octosniper finally fired, he missed the boy by a few feet.

"Sorry, buddy." With that, Langston pulled the trigger on his weapon twice. With a loud cry, the final octosniper went down. The masked inkling smiled before glancing inside to check on Agent 3. Despite what logic told him, he couldn't help but worry about her.

Much to his surprise, Odette was groggily sitting up. There was a peeved look on her face, directed at Agent 3 herself. The inkling in question was busy mopping up octarian soldiers over by the control panel. It was clear that she hadn't noticed the octoling's awakening yet. Thinking quickly Langston tossed out a seeker before rushing through the door. Odette heard it coming and easily dodged it. Turning, the elite soldier faced him with a sneer on her face.

"Looks like I have to take care of you first, inkling scum," she hissed. Before the boy could react, she darted forward, ready to fire.

"Not today, you old hag!" Dash suddenly vaulted in through one of the open windows and dumped all the ink in his tri slosher nouveau on her. Odette shot him a murderous look before three short bursts of ink from behind splatted her.

"Old hag, huh," Agent 3 said as she nonchalantly spun her gun. "I'll have to add that one to my repertoire of insults. Nice work, Bluey, you too, Gas Mask."

"My name's not Bluey," Dash snapped, angrily flushing red. The female inkling shrugged in response, before glancing up at the moon. It was slowly starting to sink towards the horizon. Sooner or later, preferably sooner, she'd have to make her exit.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Nice work taking out the octarians though. Odette and Octavia aren't easy opponents. For that matter, neither are octosnipers"

"Thanks." Langston quietly accepted the compliment, hesitating a little. "Um... not to be rude but... who are you?"

"Oh, forgive my manners." The girl gave a slight bow before her splattershot and tossing it up into the air, "The name's 3, Agent 3 to you. You'll have to give my apologies to the inklings guarding this place once they wake up. I can't imagine they'll be very happy with the events that transpired. As for the charges, I'd be very careful with removing them. Normally I'd do it myself, but I'm not exactly a demolition expert. Oh, and do me a favor, return this gun to that kin in the yellow shirt. He's probably been freaking out ever since I...borrowed it."

"You stole one of the guard's weapons," Langston asked incredulously. The agent shrugged in response.

"Hey, it ain't stealing if I intended to give it back," she retorted "But it's getting late, and I have a report to go file. Sorry for leaving you two so soon. Ciao, Gas Mask. See you around, Bluey."

"For the hundredth, thousandth time," Dash shouted angrily as Agent 3 super jumped away. "My name's not Bluey!"

"Forget about that," Langston said with a sigh. He walked over to retrieve the splattershot their ally had left behind "What exactly did she mean when she said the guards had to wake up?"

"I don't' know, but I'm going to find out! Last one downstairs is rotten calamari!"

"H-hey, hold up a second! What're we going to do with all of these octarians," the older teen called after his partner. Dash either didn't hear him or care, instead bounding down the stairs. Langston sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Impulsive as ever," he muttered before running after him.

* * *

 **Happy New Year! It's a miracle, I actually managed to get a chapter out relatively quickly. And with this, I am considering the story officially caught up to where the first version left off! Going forward will be mostly new material - there are a few little snippets of the other version here and there that I am going to implement, but the vast majority of the story will be new. I'm pretty excited about this because I have a lot of exciting things planned for this series.**

 **Here's what I've got so far:**

 **There will be 5 stories - Before the Darkness (BtD), The Darkest Hour (TDH), The Darkest Depths (TDD), The Brightest Lights (TBL), and The Darkness Lingers (TDL). Each one will feature new protagonists. The plots will be interconnected, but I am trying to write each one so a reader can theoretically read them out of order and still understand things. The timeline for these stories is as follows: BtD takes place two years before TDH. Four-ish years later, TDD and TBL occur. Six months after that, TDL finishes out the series.**

 **Right now Before the Darkness is being rewritten, similarly to how I rewrote The Darkest Hour. I'm going to be expanding on things a bit and trying to flesh out the characters and world a bit more.**

 **For this story, I'm going to be writing less complete turf wars. They can get a bit repetitive at times, so most likely I will instead be showing snippets of them I will still have some full turf wars when important exposition or encounters take place (or when Quinn hasn't annoyed Ryker in a while). Mostly things will be focusing on Quinn's Squidbeak activities. I'm doing this for two reasons. One, I don't want to drag the story out that much. I'm predicting it'll be one of the longer ones already, there's no need for me to make it unnecessarily long. The other reason is because I personally find them much easier to write. I really don't want to get six month writer's block again...**

 **Other than that, I hope you all had a great holiday season. I'd like to give a big shoutout and thank you to two of my friends, Joey and Erick, for helping me cure my writer's block and find the inspiration to write again. You guys are awesome!**

 **Reviews, follows, and favorites are always appreciated! See y'all in the next chapter!**


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

"What's taking them all so long," Ryker grumbled impatiently. The teen was pacing back and forth in his living room, a scowl plastered on his face. Liam and Zane were in the room as well, the two boys being the only ones to have arrived so far. They shared an uneasy look before Zane spoke up.

"Splashtown is quite a fair distance away," the yellow tentacled inkling pointed out. "When Dash and Langston called, they were only about three-quarters of the way here."

"Not them, the others. When I call a meeting of the top council, I expect them all to be here on time! Dash has an excuse, the others are all half an hour late! It is ridicu-"

A knock at the door resounded in the air, cutting off his angry rant. Liam darted over and opened it, revealing Akira, Kasumi, and Pandora standing behind it. They had their weapons with them, and very sheepish looks on their faces.

"Hey guys, how's it-"

"You're late," Ryker bellowed, interrupting Pandora. "You were supposed to be here a while ago."

"Aw, it's not like we completely blew off the meeting," Kasumi shrugged, pulling her inkbrush off her back and setting it by the door. "And it's not really our fault. We were in a ranked match and one of the inklings started throwing up discolored ink. The officials had to quarantine everyone until they could be sure no one got contaminated."

"Mmhm," Akira nodded absently. "The skatepark's probably going to be closed for a few weeks, by the way."

Ryker still had an irritated look on his face, but nonetheless accepted their answer. Akira also put his weapon - a custom dual squelcher - by the doorway. Pandora, meanwhile, chose to sit down on an ottoman and start polishing hers.

"Heyo boss we're he-Pandora why in kelp's name are you using a nozzlenose?"

"I'm called the weapon master for a reason, Flora," the purple tentacled girl replied with an eye roll. "I can't exactly exclude certain types of weapons if I'm to live up from that title."

"Yeah but...it's a nozzlenose…"

"Why are you three late," Ryker snapped. Flora shrugged before looking over at her twin. Said twin also shrugged before looking at Yusei, who was leaning his e-liter by the other weapons. He sighed and gestured for the two siblings to do the same before turning to look at Ryker.

"Our apologies for our lateness," he said evenly. "But given that we're cutting our vacation a bit short, and the fact that this meeting was extremely last-minute, we did our best to get here as close to the starting time as possible."

"I personally think we did a very good job," Flora piped up, earning an eye roll and a sigh from Fabio. "So what's up bub? Something happen with the respawn pads again? Is there some new ink battle regulations we have to go over?"

"We'll explain more when everyone has assembled," Zane promised. Flora shrugged before starting up a conversation with the other council members. Ryker did his best to tune them all out, instead returning to his pacing. He was trying to comprehend just exactly what had gone down out at the power generator. For starters, why did the octarians want to destroy it? After the events at the Kelp Dome, the teen had been none too happy to hear that the octarian forces had once again try to attack inklings. Though this time, their target didn't really make any sense. Why would they want to take out the power plant? In all honesty, they should have been glad about it being constructed. If inklings moved away from zapfish power, then there was a high chance that their enemies would get to keep the electric catfish for themselves. Didn't they consider that to be a good thing?

Also concerning was the thought of the meeting being infiltrated. Ryker had not forgotten about the Agents that had stolen the security footage of the Kelp Dome attack. In all likelihood, that evidence was gone. None of them could afford to have that happen again. That was why Ryker had asked the rest of the council to bring their weapons with them. Even if the Agents showed up, they wouldn't be able to fight off the ten best fighters in Inkopolis

At least, Ryker hoped that'd be the case.

"Sorry, it took us so long." Dash had finally arrived, Langston entering the room behind him. Both of them were carrying large boxes stuffed to the brim, to tops barely staying shut. The pair set them down on the floor in the middle of the little gathering before seating themselves on the couch next to Liam and Zane. Upon seeing this, Flora raised an eyebrow.

"Um, not to be rude to you or anything Langston," she said in an awkward tone of voice. "But this is a meeting for the high council only."

"We're making an exception since he was at the plant with Dash when this happened," Ryker replied gruffly.

"Okay, so now that we're all here," Pandora inquired, "could someone please clue us all in as to what this big, drastic event is? I hate being left in the dark, and I'd imagine that a fair bit of you all dislike that too."

Ryker shrugged in response before gesturing towards Dash. The light blue inkling rummaged around in his bag for a moment before pulling out a disk.

"I think this is pretty self-explanatory," he said as he slid it into the DVD player. Turning on the television, he switched it over to the appropriate setting and pressed play.

Shock, outrage, confusion, surprise, and anger, among other emotions, flickered onto the faces of the inklings present. Well, it flickered onto most of their faces. Langston and Dash certainly did not react as explosively as the other members of the room. To their great surprise, though, Yusei and the twins did not appear as shocked or outraged as their companions. No, they looked more concerned than anything else. It was just the tiniest bit suspicious.

"Now, now, what's all this about you having a party and not inviting me?" On the screen, Agent 3's form vaulted in through a window.

"Wh-who are you," the recorded Dash demanded.

"Agent 3." Odette's voice was distorted heavily from the low-quality audio, causing it to sound more like a hiss than anything else. "So you did come, after all."

"Well someone's going to have to stop you folks from spreading mayhem and destruction," Agent 3 retorted cheekily.

Yusei, Flora, and Fabio stiffened slightly at the girl's appearance, something that thankfully was not noticed by their colleagues. Kasumi frowned before stealing the remote from Dash. The light blue inkling glared at her in response, but his friend ignored him. Pausing the video just as it zoomed in on the octolings and Agent 3, she jabbed a thumb at the screen.

"Two really important questions," she said with a flat, somewhat angered tone. "First of all, what on earth are those things? And second off, who is this Agent 3 girl, and how did she get into the power plant?"

"That's three things," Akira muttered unhelpfully, causing the inkbrush user to elbow him.

"What about the rest of the video," Flora blurted out. "Shouldn't we save questions until the end?"

"In all honesty, the rest of this just shows the two of us teaming up with her to take out the more hostile intruders," Langston admitted. "Although the other security footage does show her path through the facility. From the looks of it she splatted the intruders but either avoided or knocked out the guards. She was rather skilled with that splattershot."

"Sweet! I'll watch it later, maybe I can pick up some new tricks!" Of course, Pandora would be thinking about improving her weapon skills at a time like this. Ryker rolled his eyes and shook his head, but managed to keep himself composed. The octarian threat was the most important thing right now. He could lecture Pandora about appropriate times to think about her training later.

"So, if I could have an answer to my questions, that would be very much appreciated," Kasumi grumbled.

"Agent 3 called them octarians," Langston said. "The tall ones are octosnipers, and the two that look kind of like inklings are known as octolings. The rest seemed to be standard grunt troops. From what we were told and what slipped out during the fight, they were trying to plant explosives to wreck the control room, if not the whole building."

His words were met with an explosion of outbursts from the group. Ryker looked downright furious that the octarians tried to destroy the machine. Right now, the stability of Inkopolis depended on getting that power plant up and running. There was also the fact that the resulting explosion wouldn't have just destroyed the building, but also severely injured, if not killed, other inklings made the orange inkling's blood boil. Liam and Zane both had stone cold looks adorning their faces, masking their inner thoughts. Pandora was angrily ranting about wanting to hunt the octarians down right then and there, while Akira and Kasumi were busy trying to dissuade her from that line of thinking. Both of them seemed appalled at the idea of there being another war. Yusei, Flora, and Fabio were the most composed, quietly conversing among themselves rather than shouting declarations. Finally, Ryker had had enough.

"Oh all of you be quiet," he snapped in an annoyed tone. "This is what has happened so far. The question is, what are we going to do about it?"

"What's already been done regarding this," Fabio inquired calmly. "We're obviously not the only ones that know about this. There was that Agent 3 girl, and then all of the guards at the plant that night."

"Langston here managed to convince the guards that it would be best if we sent a report to the House of Hundred," Dash replied. "He also asked that they not speak about it to prevent widespread panic. Most of them were pretty easy to reason with - no one wants another set of riots like the ones a few years back."

"Mhmm," Langston nodded absently, running a hand over his mask. He then pointed to the boxes in the center of the room. "Those boxes have written accounts regarding the attack from everyone who was on duty at the time, as well as pictures of the charges the octarians were going to use to blow the power station up. We also have some other assorted tech that they left behind when they fled, most notably one of the sniper rifles the octosnipers had. As far as Dash and I are aware, all of the evidence of the attack is in there."

"That's all fine and dandy, but what about Agent 3," Akira wondered. "She's the wildcard in all of this."

"Yeah," Pandora echoed. "Who is she anyway?"

"From the way she and the octolings conversed, it appears that she's been fighting them for some time," Langston said with a shrug. Though it was hidden from the others, there was a rather perturbed expression on his face. "Somehow she figured out that there would be an attack at the plant fast enough to come up with a strategy to deal with them, and get to Splashtown in time. Not only that, she was familiar enough with the different types of soldiers to recognize them at a glance."

"She was also on a first name basis with the octolings," Dash piped up, absentmindedly drumming his fingers against the couch cushions. "Well, as much as that's possible with her using a codename...whoever she is though, there's obviously bad blood between herself and the octarian forces."

"I wonder…" Liam trailed off, uncertainty etched on his features. "No...that's impossible, never mind."

Instantly, the whole room turned their attention to him. Feeling the pressure of their combined gaze, the purple tentacled sniper sort of shriveled up in his seat. He didn't like being in the spotlight, so to speak - especially since right now he was only working with a theory.

"What's impossible," Akira asked gruffly. "In case you hadn't noticed, octarians are still alive and that was supposedly impossible too. Might as well explore every possibility."

"...Maybe...maybe she's the one retrieving the zapfish?" The purple inkling spoke with a healthy dose of hesitancy, unsure of how the others would react to his idea. "I mean, if the octarians took them in the first place, then it's possible that Agent 3's been stealing them back. It would certainly explain why they keep on slowly popping back up in the different settlements, and why she was on a first name basis with the octolings."

"Well, if she's fighting them, then I see no reason not to assume that Agent 3 is on our side for now," Flora suggested in a hurried tone of voice. "Yeah she trespassed and scared the ink out of the guards, but at the end of the day, she did help stop the octarians. I think we should focus more on the large threat."

"So what should we do about the octarians, then?" Zane was busy sketching out battle plans on a piece of paper, trying to come up with various strategies to employ against their new foe. "We don't have any evidence regarding the true identity of the one who stole the Great Zapfish, although this attack proves they are still alive and trying to harm us. Keep in mind, however, that any sort of unprovoked attack is technically a declaration of war. This is not something to rush into lightly."

"In all honesty, I'd do nothing about it right now." Yusei's quiet words caused everyone to stare at him as if he had grown a second head. Was he crazy? The octarians had attacked in cold blood and he was willing to just sit back and do nothing? That sounded like something only a fool would say.

"Think about it," he continued with a shrug. "We don't know much about the octarians other than that there is enough of them to launch an attack on us. We don't know how large of an army they have, assuming they have an army. We don't know what kind of technology they have, what kind of destruction they are capable of, or even really anything about their strength in general. Kelp, we don't even know if this group of octarians is acting under orders from their leader. For all we know that group could have broken off from whatever is left of the octarian civilization and are acting on their own."

"...Not only that, but we don't know where their base of operations is located either," Dash admitted reluctantly. "There's a lot of wilderness near Splashtown, and searching it will be difficult. Of course, that's assuming their base even is near there. It could easily be somewhere else."

"And then there is the state of the public to think about. They've been on edge ever since the Great Zapfish was stolen. If we have Callie and Marie announce that we've been attacked by the octarians and we're going to war against them, things could get ugly, fast."

"Define ugly," Ryker ordered. His words caused Yusei to sigh.

"We've almost had widespread panic over the theft of the zapfish, and that's just over the loss of power. If we go to war, we could be looking at widespread riots. Do we really want that to happen over an attack that right now almost no one outside of this room knows about, against an enemy that the majority of inklings assume are extinct, and against a group that we have no idea where they are located, let alone how to fight them? I don't know about you guys, but the last time there were riots it was with the respawn pad incident. I'm sure we all remember vividly what happened then. That is the risk we are facing right now."

"He has a point," Zane muttered as he crumpled up his paper. "What do you think, Ryker?"

"...Let's vote." The orange inkling didn't sound too happy about not fighting back, but there was wisdom in Yusei's words that he could not deny. "Everyone in favor of leaving the octarians alone, for the time being, raise your hands. Langston, you can vote too. There'll be no possibility of a tie that way."

Yusei, Flora, Fabio, Langston, Dash, Zane, and Kasumi all raised their hands. Ryker and Liam both appeared to be conflicted but eventually chose to raise theirs as well. Only Pandora and, surprisingly, Akira dissented.

"So it's official then. We're leaving them alone for the time being."

"But we can't just do nothing," Pandora protested. "Look, I don't want a full-blown war but we can't pretend like nothing happened."

"Pandora's right," Akira added. "The octarians are already bold enough to attack the power plant despite its guards. What's not to say they'll attack Inkopolis next?"

"We might not be doing anything against the octarians now, but you're forgetting about Agent 3," Flora pointed out. "She's obviously fighting them, and judging from her performance I'd say she's doing a pretty good job."

"What is there to say that she's the only one doing that as well," Kasumi mused softly. "She's called Agent 3, that implies that there are others working with here. At the very least, there has to be an Agent 1 and an Agent 2, and for all we know there could be other ones past Agent 3 that are trying to fight off the octarians."

"Whether it is likely or not doesn't matter," Ryker said in an authoritative tone, putting an end to all forms of discussion. "We've voted to leave the octarians alone for now, and that is what we are going to do. Unless something drastic happens, the details of what we have discussed are to remain secret. If any of you start sharing things, it will be grounds for automatic expulsion from the House. Does everyone understand that?"

Upon the others affirming that yes, they did understand that they were to keep quiet, the orange tentacled inkling sighed and shook his head.

"If that's the case, then the meeting's over," he said with another sigh. "If any of you find out something new, report it directly to me. I'll set up a new meeting then."

* * *

Quinn smiled as she popped out of the sewers, thankful to be breathing in the fresh air. A quick cursory inspection revealed that Octo Valley was as normal as ever. It brought a sense of relief since everything seemed to be calm.

"Holy mackerel, Cap'n, you won't believe wha...oh hi you guys! I didn't realize you were back already!"

Sure enough, Yusei and the twins were standing by Cap'n Cuttlefish's shack. None of them looked to be happy. In fact, Flora looked extremely worried, something that was extremely uncommon for her. It took a lot to cause the normally cheerful inkling to be so gloomy. Fabio was lost in thought, which wasn't nearly as alarming as his sister's expression. Yusei himself had a deadly serious look on his face, one that was trained on Quinn. Despite herself, the girl flinched before looking around.

"Not really in the chatty mood are you," she mumbled.

"Why," Fabio asked, "on earth did you let Langston and Dash help you when the octarians attacked the power plant? What we are doing here is supposed to be top secret. It's bad enough that a whole bunch of the guards saw the invaders, but you shouldn't have allowed any civilians to get into the fight."

"And you guys know about that how?" Quinn looked at the trio suspiciously. She had only made a very brief preliminary report to the captain, and that really didn't include a lot of details. If she was remembering correctly, the teenager had only mentioned that civilians had come into contact with the octarians. There was no grand tale of the fight that took place in the control room.

"We ran into Langston and Dash earlier," Flora replied carefully. "They were all spooked about it, said that they had run into the octarians when they were out on guard duty. The two of them also said that you showed up, although I must say I like the nicknames you picked out for them."

"Now is not the time to bring that up, Flora," Fabio hissed.

"Okay, I get it, I royally screwed that one up." Quinn sighed and sat down on a nearby rock, a frustrated look on her face. "You don't need to tell me how badly that mission got screwed up. At the very least, they don't know it was me. I had a disguise on, and I wasn't even using my splash neo."

"That doesn't matter!" Yusei had an angry expression plastered across his face. "We're lucky enough that the House of Hundred hasn't seemed to be alerted of this. If they start investigating our activities, they will find out about us. It is not a matter of if, it is a matter of when."

"And disguise or not, that doesn't excuse the fact that you were careless," Fabio added. "Yes, there is a respawn pad at the power plant on the off chance that someone accidentally get splatted. Even so, it was not right for you to draw civilians into the fight. That attack could easily be seen as an act of war. If the House decides to start retaliating, our job is going to get a whole lot harder."

"What choice did I have," Quinn protested. "It was me versus two octolings, a whole bunch of octarian troops, and a trio of octosnipers. That's a royal pain the rear end already, and who knows how many more reinforcements were on their way. I wouldn't have been able to take everyone out in time before they had the charges armed and started the countdown. If I didn't ask Dash and Langston to help, we could have been looking at a massacre, and a massacre's a whole lot harder to cover up than an attack where nobody died and there wasn't a lot of damage to the environment."

"We understand that, Three," Flora said gently. "But what we are doing here is top secret. If we wanted to raise an army, we would've helped the Cap'n set up a training school or something. We can't afford to allow anyone in on this, and that means keeping our missions under wraps."

"It's a power plant that's staffed by engineers, security guards, and construction workers," Quinn snapped, a fire blazing in her eyes. "They are there twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, three hundred and sixty-five days a year! Civilians were going to get involved the minute the octarians attacked, whether I was there or not. Why does the fact that I was there suddenly change that? Besides, when I got there Langston and Dash were already fighting the octolings. Neither of them are bad with a weapon, far from it, but if I hadn't stepped in they'd have easily been splatted."

"Agent 3-"

"I took on the most dangerous opponents," the young teenager interrupted angrily. "I put them in places where I believed that they would be safe and still have opponents to fight. I have no doubt that if they were told to retreat, they not only would disregard me but also do something crazy like jump out in front of the octolings. Had I not done that, not only would they have probably tried to play hero but the entire power station would have been blown sky high!"

"Agent 3 that is enough!" Yusei's shout cut through her angry tirade. Reluctantly, the girl stopped her shouting. A furious look was on her face, matched by the one on the sniper's face.

"We get it, it was a bad situation," Fabio murmured softly as he inspected his hero shot. "That doesn't change the fact that you allowed civilians into the conflict. What's not to say that the octarians might go after them? Dash, in particular, is the one I'm worried about since he was present in the Kelp Dome. They might recognize him and get suspicious since he keeps on getting tangled up with them."

"I get that, but you guys aren't listening to me! Of course it was a bad idea to involve them, but I didn't have a choice in the matter."

"3, stop before things get out of hand," Flora pleaded, glancing over at Yusei. The oldest inkling in the group appeared to be quite ticked off, to say the least. An angry glare was plastered across his face, and one of his hands was curled tightly around his hero charger. The knuckles were white and rigid, the rest of his body was equally tense.

"Provided that there isn't any sort of emergency," he said stiffly, "you're being taken off of active duty for the next two weeks. If you have to fill out any more reports regarding the latest octarian attack, do it now. Otherwise, get changed and leave. If something comes up where your presence is required, one of us will come and get you, understand?"

"What! Two whole weeks? But that's unrea-"

"Understand?" Yusei interrupted her, his voice low and dangerous. Behind him, Flora was rapidly shaking her head back and forth, trying to signal to Quinn that this was not a fight worth getting into. Sighing in frustration, the girl shook her head.

"Yeah yeah, understood," she sneered. "I'll just have you know that you're being extremely unreasonable, not to mention unfair over this."

With that, Quinn stormed back into the cabin, grabbing her normal attire and slipping behind a changing partition. Quickly the girl got changed before heading over to her locker. She was tempted to wad up her hero suit and throw it into the bottom of the storage container, along with her gun, bombs, and ink tank, but chose not too. Getting into more trouble wasn't high on her to-do list at the moment. Besides, wrinkled clothing was unfresh, not to mention uncomfortable. Instead, the girl hung up her uniform neatly and put her weapons back on the shelf. After that, she stalked back outside, shoving her splash-o-matic back into its holster. Ignoring the rest of the team, the teenager slipped through the grate, vanishing without a word.

"...Welp...is she mad at us or what," Flora eventually said after a long moment. Fabio sighed, a frustrated look appearing on his face.

"To be fair, if we could tell her that everyone in the top ten are looking into the octarians now, she might be a bit more understanding," he admitted. "I can see how, without that crucial piece of information, it would appear that we're treating her unfairly."

"Yeah...although maybe you were a bit too hard on her Kilo...she is still really new to this, and that attack must've been pretty terrifying in her position."

"That doesn't matter. Regardless of age, Agent 3 is still a member of the splatoon." Yusei sounded annoyed as he spoke, annoyed and frustrated beyond belief. There was still a touch of anger in his eyes, though he had noticeably calmed down since Quinn had made her exit. "What's done is done, and orders are orders. She's not allowed to come back for two weeks, barring any extenuating circumstances. Hopefully during those two weeks she learns to cool her head a bit."

* * *

 **It's a miracle, I'm actually updating semi-close to my last update. Hooray for me! I apologize for the chapter being kind of dialogue heavy, but I felt it was important to include these two scenes from the first draft. Don't worry, the next few chapters will have some action to make up for it.**

 **Also, in bittersweet news, I have ended up having to take a year off of school due to my health. On one hand, this means that I will have more time to write stories. I am hoping to get this one done by the end of the year. I know I always make goals in regards to my stories that I never seem to meet, but this time I'm really hoping I'll be able to do it. On the other hand though, this means that my health is quite poor. School was my everything, the most important thing in my life. The fact that I have to take a year off - and thus end up not graduating on time - is hitting me very hard. I am hoping that the depressive funk that has come along with this sad decision will not last long.**

 **As always, my health does come before my stories. If my health is too poor for me to write, then I simply will not be able to update. I am dealing with something that has the ability to render me incapable of doing anything for weeks at a time. Such is the nature of one of my chronic conditions, it saps my mental and physical energy to the point where all I can really do is watch tv or play simple video games. Believe me, it frustrates me to no end to be unable to create things. I hate being laid up with a burning passion, but that is my reality at the moment.**

 **Thanks to everyone who's stuck with me and this story through all the infrequent updates. As always, reviews, follows, and favorites are appreciated!**


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

Quinn spent the vast majority of the next few days fuming, and chose to take her anger out in turf wars. Several hours were spent wrecking the competition in ink battles, though with her anger Quinn lacked the fitness she normally had. Oftentimes she was splatted due to a careless mistake or a moment of being unfocused, which only served to further increase her bad mood. It was a rather vicious cycle the teen was caught in, but at the moment she didn't care. Nonetheless, anger or not, her level started rising rapidly as the teen went on a marathon session of splatting and inking. Soon it had skyrocketed from six to fifteen. It was a nice, respectable level for a young inkling that had been in the city for a few weeks. For someone like Quinn, however, who had been there for several months, it was a bit more embarrassing. Usually, it indicated a lack of interest in ink battles, or just not having any talent when it came to the art of claiming turf.

When the teenager paused to take a break for a rather late lunch, she had been fighting for several hours straight. Her muscles were sore and her lungs hurt with every breath, but the inkling had no plans on quitting then. She just wanted something to do that would take her mind off of the miniature exile she'd been imposed with.

"...Maybe I should do ranked battles," the black inkling muttered as she took a bite out of her salmon burger. "Might be easier for me to blow off some steam in there…"

Quinn sighed and pulled out her phone, deciding to look up the current ranked rotation. Before the girl could get very far, however, a flash of orange caught her attention. The orange was followed by equally quick flashes of yellow, purple, and blue. It was Ryker and his crew, out for a day of inking turf. Quinn thought for a minute before a grin crawled onto her face.

"Hmm...now that might be fun," she mused. Quickly, the girl crammed the rest of her burger down her throat before throwing out her trash. With a smirk, she followed them into the tower. The black tentacled inkling caught up to them just in time to see the boys register as a group. An attendant directed them off to one of the inkrails before announcing that there was one spot remaining. Hurriedly, Quinn darted over to the sign-in and entered her information. She then proceeded to the same inkrail Ryker and the others had taken, wasting no time in activating it. Before leaving, she took a moment to glance over at the list of people registered to play. Aside from the boys, only Koa's name sounded familiar. The other two, Sam and Maxwell, were complete mysteries.

"Better hurry up," she said with a slightly twisted smirk. "After all, I can't keep Ryker waiting."

With a grin she hopped into the inkrail, slipping into the darkness of the tunnel. It was quiet, and the air reeked with a damp mustiness. Faint splashes could be heard as some unidentified animal ran through the puddles on the floor, paired with the dripping sounds of water falling into water. The place certainly was reminiscent of the sewers. As soon as that thought crossed her mind, Quinn scowled. She didn't exactly want to think of that place right now.

Soon enough faint streaks of light began to bleed into her vision. The end of the inkrail came into view, and with a nonchalant hop Quinn emerged into the open air of Camp Triggerfish. Inklings were milling about the overlook area, some studying the battlegrounds below while others chatted amongst themselves. Quinn looked around for Ryker and managed to catch his eye. A shocked expression quickly flitted across the orange inkling's face before being replaced by an angry one. Instead of her usual smirk, his black tentacled rival scowled at him. She then pointed at Ryker, a deadly glint appearing in her eyes as she spun her gun expertly. Liam and Dash flinched at the ferocity behind the gesture, unused to such a hostile display from the easygoing teen. Regardless, her messages was clear. Quinn was going after Ryker first.

"Oh, it's you."

Tearing her eyes away from the other team, Quinn was met with the sight of her teammates. The sniper, Koa, was familiar to her. She had vague memories of the match at Piranha Pit where the two had first met. Something about the sniper, however, gave Quinn the sensation that she knew Koa a lot better than that. The black inkling couldn't put her finger on it, but the nagging sense remained at the back of her mind as her stormy eyes wandered over to the other two inklings standing with the sniper.

One was holding a splattershot jr, and was obviously a newcomer to the sport if his gear was anything to judge by. Despite this, he had a friendly smile on his face and introduced himself as Sam. The other one was holding a pink colored sploosh-o-matic, and was constantly tugging his squid nordic down. Curiously the goggles that came with the hat were pulled over his eyes, but Quinn chose to ignore it for now. She was more curious about his weapon.

"Hey," she muttered, causing the boy to jump. "What sort of weapon is that? I've never seen it before."

"O-oh, um, uh…" The boy fidgeted nervously and tugged on his hat a bit harder. "It's a prototype of a new weapon that Sheldon is developing. I have special permission from Judd to test it out in turf war matches. It's called the sploosh-o-matic 6, and it comes with splat bombs and a kraken."

"Oh you're so lucky," Sam exclaimed. "That's a fresh gig you got, I wish I could do that, um...what's your name again?"

"It's Maxwell."

"Well, nice to meet you two," Quinn said, making an effort to keep the edge out of her voice. "Good to see you again as well, Koa."

"Yeah," the girl muttered as she inspected her sniper rifle. "Same to you I guess."

"Hey," Ryker snapped. "Are you four going to stand around talking or are we going to fight?"

"Oh, put a sock in it," Quinn hissed back. "I'll be splatting you soon enough."

Sam and Maxwell both flinched as the air grew thick with anger. Koa, however, sighed impatiently.

"Are you two just going to glare at each other forever? We do have a match you know."

Without waiting for an answer, she super jumped to one of the spawn points. Maxwell hurriedly did so as well, turning into a slightly misshapen squid. Faster than a gunshot he was off, sailing into the air. Upon seeing this, Sam's eyes widened.

"Wow…" he said in awe. "How many quick super jump abilities do you think he has?"

"Don't know, don't care," Quinn grumbled before glancing back at Ryker. The others had already headed off to their own spawn point, causing the girl to growl under her breath. Finally, she too left the observation platform, arriving at the far end of the stage. Her team turned midnight blue, while Ryker's morphed into a nice emerald hue. The girl caught Maxwell and Sam glancing at her nervously, but chose to ignore them. She had more important things to worry about at that moment.

A countdown began, finishing with a loud buzzer. Instantly the inklings began to move. Quinn and Maxwell dove off the platform, the former tossing a suction bomb onto one of the floodgates positioned high above the arena. When they lowered later in the match she wouldn't have to waste any time inking a path up them. The teen then dove into the ink that Maxwell was laying down with his sploosh-o-matic 6, following him to the center of the stage. Sam began covering the raised platform by their respawn pad. He was moving much slower that Koa, who was already swiftly making her way towards the small sidepath. She paused to throw a sprinkler into the circular area that was normally used for campfires. The sniper then continued along her way. Shooting a few trails of ink up the wall, she swam up to the top and crept towards the center. The crafty inkling wanted to see where Liam was before revealing herself.

Maxwell, Zane, Ryker, and Liam had already engaged in the first skirmish of the fight by the time Quinn arrived in the middle. The sploosh-o-matic wielding inkling chucked a splat bomb over to the other side of the map before rocketing off to the leftmost side of the map. With the short range of his weapon, he'd be better off getting into enemy territory rather than acting as a sitting duck. The three emerald inklings let him go for the time being, instead choosing to focus on Quinn. She smirked in response and lobbed a suction bomb up over the water. It stuck to the top of the sniper nest, and Liam chose to fall back down off the ledge rather than risk being splatted. While he was thus occupied, Koa took the opportunity to move into position.

"You're not going to be able to reach her Zane," Ryker barked as the tactician continued failing to score a direct hit on the girl. "Get moving, Liam and I will handle her."

Upon saying this, he headed over to the mesh platform to take aim at her. Quinn laughed before ducking under his shots. She then returned fire, causing a wonderfully angry expression to appear on the boy's face as she managed to splat him. The splash-o-matic user didn't have time to rest on her laurels, however. There was a lot more splatting to be done, though she did have to admit she was now in a slightly better mood. Zane facepalmed before going on his way, trusting Liam to take care of her.

"Keep moving," Koa ordered, rising out of the ink to fire a warning shot at the other sniper. "I'll keep the middle secured."

Quinn rolled her eyes but ran off, ducking behind a wall and out of sight. Koa remained on her perch, watching Liam intently. She had a shot fully charged up, and the look on her face almost dared the other teen to try and splat her. And try Liam did, sending a shot whizzing to her right. A fierce sniper duel began, both inklings so caught up in the moment that they failed to notice Dash had snuck over to the blue team's side. A well-placed attack from his tri slosher splatted Sam, the inkling letting out a small yelp. The blue inkling began to quickly cover up the enemy turf, signaling for Zane to join him. His friend quickly super jumped to his location, and the tactician began to stealthily make his way towards the path that Maxwell and Quinn had taken.

Liam was charging up another shot, taking aim at Koa. The girl, in return, was charging one of her own up as well. It was a race against both the clock and each other to see which one of them would be ready to launch their attack first. Normally there would have been no contest - a standard kelp splatterscope did charge faster than a custom e-litre 3k scope, after all. Liam's gear was stacked with damage up abilities, however, and that means that he was quicker than normal. He also had the fortune of being able to start charging first.

Both finished preparations at the same time and fired, but one crucial factor determined the outcome of the fight. Liam could charge as fast as Koa could, but he was nowhere near as agile as the other sniper. When she fired, the girl had leaped to the left, angling her body so she disappeared behind the wall. Liam's shot ended up sailing over her head. Koa's ink bullet, on the other hand, hit the boy dead in the center of his chest. He burst apart in a cloud of ink, a little squid ghost emerging to fly away towards his respawn pad.

Koa climbed back up, watching him disappear with a smirk. Her private celebration did not last long, and soon she was refocusing on the battle. Red eyes glanced around Camp Triggerfish, hunting for another enemy. After all, it would not do her any good to be caught off guard.

Over on the far left side of the map, Zane had managed to catch up to Maxwell and Quinn. The boy engaged them, doing his best to hold them at bay until Dash could arrive and lend him a hand. Quinn rushed him head-on, sloppily dodging an attack from the boy's blaster. She wasn't fighting as cleanly as she normally did, causing the normally yellow teen to stare at her suspiciously. Was she sick? She obviously wasn't in top condition.

"Dashiell, a little help over here would be appreciated," he called.

"It's Dash!" An irate cry soon echoed from mid. "Not Dashiell, Dash!"

"Well excuse me, prince," Zane muttered before doing his best to splat Maxwell. The inkling let out a slight yelp before throwing out a splat bomb to force him back. With a flash of light, his tentacles lit up. A wicked grin crossed his face as he activated his special. The inkling morphed into a slightly misshapen kraken. It was slightly rounder, but no one seemed to notice it. With a loud roar, it charged at Zane, who paled and scrambled for the net mesh platform. He barely made it, standing above the kraken who was swimming around beneath him.

"What kind of sploosh is that," he gasped out, trying to catch his breath before letting out a slight yelp as Quinn dove towards him. Before she could do anything, however, Dash rounded the corner and launched a seeker at her. His teammate followed up with a blast from his weapon, which caught the girl off guard. With an angry growl, the teenager burst apart into blue ink. Her little green squid ghost flew off, no doubt grumbling several curses under her breath.

"Look," Dash said as Maxwell reverted back to his humanoid form. "Not that this is a great time or anything, but do you know what's up with her? She's acting really strangely."

"N-not really…" The green boy edged backward. "Anyways, got to run, bye!"

Before either boy could react the sploosh user bolted back towards the center of the map. He was fast and managed to get away easily enough. Zane sighed and chased after him while Dash moved onto the netted platforms. If anyone managed to get over to that area of the map he'd have the advantage of holding the high ground. The teenager didn't expect that to happen though. Neither of the floodgates were lowered yet, meaning that for the time being no one could flank him. Content with the knowledge that he was relatively safe for the moment, Dash busied himself inking more unclaimed turf, sparing a moment to glance towards the center of the map and observe the battle going on there.

Liam was still locked in a sniper duel with Koa, neither one having taken out the other yet. Normally the boy would have been very confident - after all, he was one of the few inklings in the city that knew how to efficiently and effectively use any of the weapons in the e-litre series. Koa, however, was not like his run of the mill opponents. The girl was a wizard with a charger and, given where the perches on Camp Triggerfish were located, had no problem keeping him within her range. With that pesky factor out of the way, Koa was free to use her better mobility to her advantage. Several of her shots had almost hit the other sniper, but so far none of them had managed to hit their mark.

Below them Maxwell was running from Zane, inking more turf as he went. He was a quick fellow, managing to stay out of his pursuer's main range for the time being. That didn't mean he escaped unscathed, however. Little flecks of ink from the blaster explosions had managed to knick him, slowly eating away at his body. Another shot that landed a bit too close for comfort sailed by, causing Maxwell to yelp. He threw a bomb behind him, forcing the other inkling away from him. The explosion inked enough turf to fill his special gauge, the teen's tentacles lighting up with a blue glow. Grinning, he once again turned into a Kraken and went chasing after Zane.

"No mesh netting to save you now," he growled, voice distorted from the transformation. Zane, to his credit, didn't scream. He did, however, take off back the way he came. With their roles now reversed, Maxwell swam after the tactician.

Sam, bless the little rookie's heart, was still bumbling around the field. He wasn't very good at Turf Wars yet, having only done a handful of them. This led him to getting splatted left and right. If he got to the middle of the map, Liam would get a quick snipe on him while Koa was refilling her ink tank or was down behind the wall. Assuming he made it past the e-litre user, either Zane or Ryker would get him. This time it was the latter's turn, as a salvo of ink bullets suddenly pelted him from behind. With a yelp the young boy burst apart, a little blue ghost emerging to fly back towards spawn. Ryker watched him go with a snicker before taking aim at Koa. He was just about to fire when a voice stopped him.

"I've got things under control with her," Liam called as he fired another shot, forcing Koa to jump behind cover again. "Zane and Dash were over on the right by the sandbags, they might need some help though."

Ryker shrugged before quickly super jumping to Dash's position. Unbeknownst to him, however, was the fact that Quinn had respawned and was flying towards Maxwell. The two rivals caught sight of each other while descending for their landings. Mutual scowls crossed their faces as the pair touched down - the hydra user landing on the top of the netted platform while the splash-o-matic user ended up on top of the small pile of sandbags. They were just in time to see Zane get splatted by the kraken chasing after him. Soon after the transformation ended and Maxwell reverted to a normal inkling form.

"Oh good, maybe with your range we'll have an easier time taking care of them," Dash panted out. "Though I must admit, even though she's playing sloppily Quinn's gotten better. Remind me why exactly we haven't asked her to join the House yet?"

"Because the zapfish crisis has been swallowing up all of our time lately," Ryker replied impatiently as he fired upon the two inklings below. "We haven't had a chance to scout recruits, though it sure as hell won't be her. Doesn't help that we're losing several good members soon either."

"We are?"

"Yeah, five people if you can believe it," his leader groaned out. "Samara is going off to some college down in the south so she won't be able to keep up with the demands of being a part of the house. Marik got injured pretty badly in an accident a few days ago, and he won't be able to battle for several months. That's assuming the injuries heal to the point where he'll be able to battle at all. Both of them resigned, and then I caught three members who were illegally modifying weapons and selling them on the black market. They're banned from ink battles for life, so I kicked them out."

"Uh, guys?" Zane was standing on a small platform by the gates, looking across the river at his teammates. "Is now really the best time and place to be having a conversation like that? We're in public."

"...he has a point…" Dash sighed before looking around. It was only then that he realized that all the green ink he had so carefully laid down had turned blue. Frowning, the teen let out another sigh. "Looks like the sploosh has been busy…"

Light footfalls suddenly alerted them to an incoming opponent. Both teens snapped to attention, weapons raised and ready to engage the enemy. It was Maxwell, but surprisingly he made no move to go after the pair. Instead, he turned off the main path and headed for the small one-way bridge near the sniper nest. That was odd, neither of the boys had expected him to run away.

That was when the suction bomb placed just under their feet blew up, quickly splatting them both. Quinn had hurled it up there a few seconds ago, creating a deadly trap for the pair. It worked like a charm. Half of the emerald team was out of the match for a few moments, giving her own team an advantage in numbers. A loud thunk and a cry of protest announced that Liam was joining his teammates. Only Zane, who had managed to sneak into the dark blue team's territory, was spared from the onslaught. He had managed to make quite a bit of headway as well. As a blaster, the teen had trouble painting the ground quickly. Despite this, Zane had the luxury of only having to deal with Sam. The rookie was quickly splatted, and the tactician went back to covering up a large amount of blue ink.

Koa observed the one on one battle between Zane and Sam, shaking her head when the latter was splatted. It was obvious that the splattershot jr wielding teen was rather clumsy, but even clumsy inklings could become expert battlers with enough experience. Even though the girl was aware of that, it still worried her. Sam just didn't have the skills to keep up with anyone else. It was a pain, but at least he had an excuse. Everyone started out somewhere, and since he was still learning Koa was willing to spare him from her normal criticisms. The one she would not spare, however, was Quinn. For whatever reason, the girl was absolutely livid. Koa didn't approve of the younger girl letting her emotions get to her. Furious inklings made for terrible teammates and easy opponents. Calm heads were the ones that prevailed on the battlefield, not ones aflame with anger. In her opinion, the splash-o-matic user was a detriment to the team. Hopefully Maxwell, as well as Koa herself, would be able to pick up the slack.

A quick peek at her map showed a beakon quickly being destroyed and then replaced. Moments later Liam was back on the wall. There was a scowl on his face, making it clear that he hadn't been amused by being splatted. Smirking, Koa engaged him again, and soon the sniper duel had resumed. Shot after shot flew across the gap between them, neither one managing to hit a target. Both of them had learned the other's playstyle at this point, allowing them to dodge the attacks with relative ease. It wasn't a question of who was more skilled in this fight, but rather a question of who would slip up first.

Suddenly a ball of green ink flew up next to Koa. Paling slightly, the female sniper dove off the wall as it exploded. A fair bit of the enemy color got on her and, with a groan, the teen slipped into her own ink to flush it from her body.

"Looks like blaster boy came to play with me too," she grumbled as Sam swam past her and climbed up the wall. "Man, a bomb sure would be helpful right about now."

"Why?" Sam paused, an innocent tone to his inquiry, before squeaking as another blast from Zane nailed him. He burst apart in a cloud of green ink, sent back to the respawn pad for what seemed to be the millionth time. Koa groaned and shook her head.

"That's why kid," the girl muttered bitterly before retreating a bit and inking a second pathway up the wall. Zane and Liam were probably expecting her to pop up in the same are that Sam had if the continuous blaster shots over there were any indication of their plan. Hopefully that meant that she'd be able to take the others by surprise. A sprinkler was quickly tossed out back closer to the respawn pad, spraying blue ink everywhere. Moments later her special gauge was filled, letting out a soft flash of light. Upon seeing this, Koa smirked.

"Let's see how you like a taste of this," she said with a malicious gleam in her eyes before breaking out the killer wail. The sniper aimed it so that it would hit just below the sniper nest opposite her own. Even if her attack failed to splat anyone, she'd at least take out most of Liam's squid beakons. With a quiet chuckle, she fired, the sonic wave blasting through the stage with a roar. Metal screeched and bent before disintegrating into nothingness, paired with the sound of an inkling being splatted. As it turned out, her killer wail had managed to splat Zane as collateral damage. The teen had gotten stuck in a patch of enemy ink, slowing him down just enough to leave him in the path of the sonic assault. A pleased look crossed the sniper's face when she realized her attack had been more successful than she originally expected.

"Whoa, that was so cool," Sam cheered as he super jumped to her location. "You just demolished them!"

"Thanks," Koa replied curtly. "We don't have much time left though. That laser up there means that Liam is waiting for one of us to pop up and be easy prey. You need to stay back around here and take care of any green ink you find. After that, go up the gates and start covering turf over there. Out of curiosity do you know how our teammates are doing?"

"Uhhh…" The rookie blinked a few times, an expression akin to that of a deer caught in the headlights plastered on his face. "If I remember correctly, which I might not since I was focusing on not landing wrong...I mean you know how it is when you first learn how to super jump, the landings are always wonky and more often they involve crashes-"

"Less fluff, get to the point," his teammate snapped, a dangerous gleam in her eyes. "We don't have time for fluff kiddo."

"S-sorry! Uh, one of them was making progress into enemy territory and was heading for the sniper. The other one is in an all-out brawl with the hydra and the slosher. Do you think we should go stop it? It looked like it could have gone to blows at any moment."

"Ugh...leave it to Quinn to get caught up in a petty fight." The sniper's voice was filled with contempt. It was easy for her to guess which one of her teammates was being sensible and which one had forgotten in their anger that the goal of a Turf War was to cover the battlefield. With a frustrated sigh, Koa slipped into her squid form and began climbing up the wall.

"I'll keep Liam busy. Get moving."

"Y-yes ma'am!" Sam scrambled off, happy to get away from the other inkling. Koa watched the terrified inkling go, before rolling her eyes and returning to her perch. Almost immediately a loud thunk filled the air. Fortunately for her, the shot that accompanied the sound struck the platform next to her. Peering across the river, she was able to see a frown appear on Liam's face as he missed again.

"Heh...let me show you how a real sniper aims." With a smirk, Koa raised her kelp splatterscope and engaged the other inkling in another duel.

"You're not getting off that easy," Quinn yelled as she pursued Ryker. The teen slipped under his shots and threw out a suction bomb to try and stop his retreat. He had been trying to get to higher ground to increase his advantage, but his opponent was bound and determined to stop that from happening. Ryker growled angrily in response and threw a splat bomb at the girl, forcing her to jump back to avoid the explosion.

"Quinn, this isn't like you," Dash pleaded as he released a seeker to coat a path through enemy ink. "Just take a moment to calm down. You're acting like someone else completely different."

"Save the sappy talk show moment for later," Ryker ordered impatiently. "We're in the middle of a turf war, start acting like it."

Dash glanced away, a bit hurt that he wasn't allowed a chance to reason with his friend. He wasn't certain what had happened to make her so furious, but it had to be something major. Maybe someone broke into her apartment and stole things? No that couldn't be it, he'd have gotten alerted if that were the case. Perhaps something bad happened with her family? That could be the problem. Quinn was very attached to them, and if they had gotten hurt or killed it would certainly be enough to whip her into a frenzy.

Noticing that the slosher wielding inkling was lost in thought, Quinn darted past him. A quick pull of the trigger sent a salvo of ink heading towards the teen. Dash didn't get to be one of the best fighters in Inkopolis by being caught off guard that easily, however. He countered Quinn's attack with one of his own, tossing some of the contents of his weapon right at her. With a frustrated grunt, she was forced to back off. Ryker followed up with an attack on his own, managing to strike Quinn a few times. At this point, she was badly damaged, and just barely managed to duck behind a temporary inflatable barrier.

"Darn it," Ryker growled before looking over at his companion. Upon seeing the expression on his face, Dash let out a sigh and swam forward. With a few quick sloshes he sent a torrent of ink over the wall. The miniature tsunami of ink came crashing down on Quinn's head. She let out an angry snarl before being splatted, a grumpy little squid ghost flying off to the far off spawn point soon after.

"What's gotten into her?" Dash's question hung in the air, causing Ryker to roll his eyes.

"Don't know, don't care," he grumbled as the end whistle blew. "All that matters is that we beat her."

"..." His friend let out a sigh and shook his head. Without waiting for Ryker to follow him, he began to trudge towards the middle of the map. His friend scowled in response, before letting out a frustrated groan. Lugging his hydra, the inkling began to follow Dash.

Quinn respawned, a scowl similar to Ryker's plastered across her face. She took a look at her map before jumping towards Koa in the middle. As soon as she landed, the teen slipped into her squid form and began to climb up the wall. Before Quinn could get very far, however, Koa snatched her out of the ink by her tentacles.

"Hey, what gives," the inkling gurgled, her voice a bit distorted while in squid form. Koa's glare intensified, and she raised the squid higher so Quinn was dangling at head height.

"What on earth were you doing during the match," she demanded.

"Oi let go of me," the blue squid retorted, her natural black coloring already leeching back into her tentacles.

"I asked you a question. What on earth were you doing during the match?"

"What's it matter to you?" Quinn was irritated at this interrogation, and one could easily hear it in her voice. "I was trying to take out the other team so I could paint in peace. That blasted hydra wouldn't-"

"You absolute imbecile!" Koa's glare grew more pronounced at Quinn's rather flippant answer. "You don't win a turf war by just going into an all-out brawl with the other team! You win by painting more of the map. That's turf war one-oh-one."

"And pray tell, how the kelp am I supposed to paint when I keep getting targeted?"

"I saw you continuously go after the splatling," the sniper snapped. "That's not you being targeted, that's you targeting someone else. If you had painted we would've probably won, but you let a stupid grudge match get in the way of ensuring a victory for the team."

She would have said more, but Sam suddenly crash-landed right next to them. Groaning, the young teen slowly climbed to his feet.

"Ow…" he mumbled, rubbing his head. He then looked up, only to freeze as he took in the scene before him. "Uh...hi…? I'm just gonna…"

With a nervous expression on his face, he began to shuffle to backward. In his haste to get away from the two girls, however, Sam failed to realize that there was a rock behind him. With a loud yelp the boy tripped and toppled over into the water. Koa facepalmed, while Quinn rolled her eyes.

"If we're done here can you let go of me, " she inquired frostily. Koa scowled before dropping the other inkling. She then slipped into squid form and swam up the wall, ignoring the indignant cry from Quinn.

Ryker's team was already gathered on their side of mid, while Maxwell was sitting on the ground alone. Koa took her place next to him, slinging her kelp splatterscope over her shoulder as she did so. Minutes later a sulking Quinn arrived, leaning up against the wooden wall with a scowl. Sam was right behind her, the only one who was happy out of the eight inklings. As soon as the others arrived Liam began glaring daggers at Koa. It appeared that he was still angry over being bested in a sniper dual by the girl. Dash was looking at Quinn in concern, while Ryker and Zane were quietly conversing. The air was thick with tension, something that was unable to be ignored even when the inklings did their best to do so.

Judd was busy surveying the map, ignoring the assembled teams for the time being. Soon enough though he finished his work.

"Mrow...Green team wins 67.9% to 31.8%," he purred, raising an emerald flag into the air. Ryker's team let out loud whoops of excitement, while Koa shot a disappointed scowl in Quinn's direction.

"Next time ink the turf and settle grudges in a private match," she muttered, causing Quinn to snarl.

"You stay out of my business. What I do doesn't concern you."

"That's what you think…"

"Hah, not so lucky now Rookie," Ryker crowed, interrupting their conversation. "Losing a turf match to me is exactly what should've happened in the first place."

Quinn's furious expression grew more pronounced, but she didn't dare do anything in front of Judd. Tightening a hand on her gun, she only stuck around long enough to collect her earnings. The teen then stormed off somewhere, vanishing before anyone could follow her. Sam also left, skipping off to go fo more turf wars.

"Well, maybe we'll win next time," Maxwell sighed as he got up.

"We would've won if Quinn hadn't screwed up," Koa muttered.

"Hey." The pair glanced up as the emerald team approached them, their tentacles fading back into their normal colors. Judd had already left, leaving the six alone. The maps were rotating again, so they had no fear of being caught in the crossfire of another match. They all could take their time leaving.

"What is it," the red-eyed inkling inquired calmly, noting the fact that Liam had a sour look on his face.

"Listen, you two are pretty skilled," Zane replied. "Not many people can outduel Liam with a charger. And you, Maxwell...well sploosh-o-matics aren't that powerful but you're insanely good with it. We were wondering if you two wanted to join our group. It's full of some pretty good ink battlers, and we'd love to have you among our ranks."

"I uh...appreciate the offer," Maxwell stuttered nervously, tugging on his hat. "But I really don't want to get involved with the House. I mean, Sheldon keeps me pretty busy and I only really go into ranked battles to test out the weapon prototypes. I don't feel like I'm good enough to join you guys."

"I don't have time to get involved either." Koa allowed a lazy smirk to cross her face as Ryker's group stiffened at the mention of the House of Hundred.

"How did you know that's what we were talking about," Liam demanded harshly. Maxwell shrank back a little, fidgeting in place.

"I uh...might've hacked your system…" he mumbled. "I won't rat you guys out or anything I promise. I'm sorry please don't hurt me!"

"We won't," Dash cut in before Ryker could start yelling. "But in all seriousness, I still don't get why you'd pass up a chance to join the best of the best."

"Like I said, I have no time with working for Sheldon."

"And I just don't want to." Koa stretched in place for a minute before shifting into a squid. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got stuff to go do."

With that, she super jumped away. Maxwell also left, mumbling an excuse about having to go see his boss under his breath. Twin sighs came from Dash and Zane, while Ryker looked mildly disappointed. Liam, on the other hand, was happy since their refusals meant that he wouldn't have to duke it out with Koa on a regular basis.

"Great…" Zane grumbled as they left Camp Triggerfish. "Now what do we do, we're missing five people still and haven't had any luck recruiting."

"What about Quinn?"

"No." Ryker instantly vetoed Dash's idea, causing him to frown.

"And why not," his light blue friend retorted hotly. "I get it that you have this huge rivalry with her, but you have to admit she is good. I mean, what other player at her level do you know that can go toe to toe with any of the top four players in Inkopolis? Maxwell and Koa were at a much higher level than her, and they've had more time to train and get used to inking the turf. Face it Ryker, Quinn's talented."

"She isn't mature enough though," Zane pointed out. "Her actions today were childish and cost her team the match."

Dash groaned, but the yellow tentacled strategist had a point. Quinn hadn't acted like herself during the match, Her attacks had been questionable at best and downright pathetic at their worst. It was as if she was some sort of rookie rather than the battle-ready inkling he was familiar with.

"So if we don't ask her, then who exactly do we ask?"

"We'll figure it out later," Ryker replied, effectively bringing an end to the discussion. "For now, let's just get back to the House for the meeting. We can decide where to go from there."

* * *

 **I'm really sorry that this took me so long! Writer's block is a pain at times. I hope that the fact that this chapter is longer than normal makes up for that. Maxwell is actually my friend Joey's creation. He's an awesome friend so I wanted to sneak his OC into a chapter to surprise him. Hopefully, you liked it, Joey! I'm almost done with the material that I wrote for the first version of this story, so soon I'll be on completely new stuff again. In all honesty, I'm looking forward to it. In some ways, it's almost more difficult to rewrite stuff I've already done. Unfortunately, with my health I cannot guarantee when the next chapter will be out, but I'm hoping it'll be sooner rather than later.**

 **Follows, favorites, questions, comments, and reviews are always appreciated! They're really nice to get, and definitely help brighten my day.**


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